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OBERLIN: 



The Colony and the College. 



1833-1883. 



By JAMES H. FAIRCHILD, 

President of Oberlin College. 



OBERLIN, O. 
E. J. GOODRICH. 

1883. 



Copyright, 1883, 
By James H. Faikchild. 

: Fi 



To the few that still survive of those who aided in 
laying the foundations at Oberlin, and to the memory of 
those who are gone; to the many who helped to rear the 
walls, " even in troublous times;" to all who by word, or 
deed, or prayer, or gift, during the fifty years, have 
shared in the work, this Record is faithfully inscribed. 



PREFACE. 



Fifty years have passed since a community and a 
college were planted together in the woods of North- 
ern Ohio. An invitation has gone forth to all who, 
during the fifty years, have been numbered with 
the Community or the College, to return to the 
family heritage for a brief reunion. As a help to- 
ward rendering the occasion a season of interest and 
profit, this brief record has been prepared. No one 
can feel more sensibly than the author the inade- 
quacy of the presentation. The struggles and tri- 
umphs of the fifty years cannot be written. There 
are many single lives that have been wrought into 
the work, any one of which could only be inade- 
quately presented in a volume like this. The record 
as given is necessarily limited to the outward and 
visible changes and movements which have marked 
the years, while the inward and spiritual history 
must be left unrecorded. 

And even much that is visible and tangible must 
be passed over without notice ; probably facts more 
important that some presented in these pages have 
been thus omitted. The author has had no personal 
interests to serve, no feelings to gratify, no the- 
ories to sustain. If important omissions or other 
errors shall appear, they must be attributed to im- 



b PREFACE. 

perfections of apprehension or of recollection. In 
general, facts are stated with little exhibition of 
authorities. Where such facts have been matters of 
record the proper records have been consulted ; but 
to a great extent they depend upon personal obser- 
vation and memory, and can have no other endorse- 
ment. The reader will make due allowance for all 
the liabilities involved. 

J. H. F. 
OBERLIN, May, 1883. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Origin of the Enterprise — Its Founders 9 



CHAPTER II. 
The Work of the First and Second Years 32 

CHAPTER III. 

The Accession from Lane Seminary and Consequent En- 
largement 50 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Early Spirit and Thought and Life 78 

CHAPTER V. 

Attitude and Experiences, Ecclesiastical and Political 97 

CHAPTER VI. 
Early Missionary Activity 133 

CHAPTER VII. 
Oberlin in the War 154 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

Special Features : Coeducation — Manual Labor — Music 173 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Financial History and Material Development of the Col- 
lege and the Colony 204 

CHAPTER X. 
General College Life — The Earlier and the Later 248 

CHAPTER XI. 

Persons who have shared in the Work 272 

Appendix 3°5 



OBERLIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. — ITS FOUNDERS. 

OBERLIN is known in the world as an institution 
of learning and a community, the two having a com- 
mon origin and a common history. As seen to-day, 
it is a pleasant village of thirty-five hundred inhab- 
itants, surrounded by a prosperous farming commu- 
nity, in the midst of which stands a college with its 
various departments, theological, collegiate, prepara- 
tory, and musical, and an average yearly attendance 
of twelve to fifteen hundred students. 

The foundations of the college and the town were 
laid together, in the spring of 1833, in what was then 
an unbroken forest, in the south part of the town- 
ship of Russia, county of Lorain, and state of Ohio. 
The tract of land secured for the purpose was three 
miles square, with a very level surface and a some- 
what stiff clay soil, entirely covered with the heavy 
timber of Northern Ohio, beech and maple predomi- 
nating, with a plentiful intermingling of oak, white- 
wood, elm, ash, and hickory, and other varieties 
usually found in such forests. 

The people who took possession of this tract were 



IO BERLIN. 

a number of Christian families, gathered from the 
different New England states, with a few from New 
York and Northern Ohio, who came to establish a 
colony and an institution of Christian education, 
with the added object of making desirable homes 
for themselves and their children. 

Such a movement, of course, could not spring up 
of itself. The projectors and prime movers in the 
enterprise were Rev. John J. Shipherd, pastor of the 
Presbyterian Church in Elyria, in the same county, 
and his associate and friend Philo P. Stewart, exten- 
sively known in the country as the inventor of the 
Stewart Stoves. 

John J. Shipherd was the son of Hon. Zebulon 
R. and Elizabeth B. Shipherd, and was born in West 
Granville, Washington Co., N. Y., March 28, 1802. 
He was carefully and religiously educated, and while 
at school at Pawlet, Vt., in preparation for college, 
his conscious religious life opened in a conversion 
which began in intense conviction and conflict, and 
resulted in great peace and joy. From this time to 
the end of his days his character and life were marked 
with profound earnestness and .restless activity. 

He had prepared to enter the college at Middle- 
bury, Vt.; and while spending a few days at home, 
before leaving for college, under a slight indisposi- 
tion, proposing to take a remedy, he swallowed, by 
mistake, a poison. By vigorous measures his life 
was saved ; but to the end of his days he was afflicted 
with persistent irritation of thetoats of the stomach, 
and with greatly impaired eyesight. After repeated 
endeavors to resume his studies he reluctantly ac- 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. II 

cepted the necessity, and turned his attention to 
such business as opened to him. 

In 1824 he married Miss Esther Raymond, of 
Ballston, N. Y., and removed to Vergennes, Vt, to 
engage in the marble business. He had assumed 
that his poor eyesight, which prevented his reading 
more than a few minutes continuously without in- 
tense pain, utterly precluded the idea of his prepar- 
ing for the gospel ministry. All his prepossessions 
and convictions were on the side of a full education 
as a requisite for the work, and he resisted decidedly 
every intimation that such a duty could be his. But 
after a long conflict in his own mind, and many 
marked providences, he entered the study of Rev. 
Josiah Hopkins, of New Haven, Vt., where he spent 
a year and a half, in company with other young men, 
in theological study. He had already acquired a 
system of short-hand writing, and his associates in 
study helped him with their eyes. He adopted the 
practice of arranging the heads and subdivisions of 
his discourse upon a card, in stenographic charac- 
ters, because his eyesight would not permit him to 
write in full ; and this practice he maintained through- 
out his life. His first year in the ministry was with 
the church in Shelburne, Vt. The next two years 
he was engaged in the general Sunday-school work 
in the state, making Middlebury his headquarters, 
editing a Sunday-school paper, and travelling through- 
out the state in the work of organizing schools. 
Then, under a strong conviction that the " Valley 
of the Mississippi " — as the whole country west of the 
mountains was then called — was to be the field of 



12 OBERLIK 

his life-work, he took a commission from the Ameri- 
can Home Missionary Society, and " went out, not 
knowing whither he went." At Cleveland he fell in 
with Rev. D. W. Lathrop, who had just closed his 
labors as pastor of the church in Elyria, and upon 
his invitation he came to Elyria in October, 1830, and 
was installed pastor of the church the February fol- 
lowing. During the two years of his pastoral work 
at Elyria, he was intensely occupied in revival labors 
in his own parish, and in the region round about ; and 
under the same restless impulse to hasten the com- 
ing of God's kingdom, he tendered his resignation in 
October, 1832, and entered upon the work of laying 
the foundations at Oberlin, being now thirty years 
of age. 

Philo Penfield Stewart was born in Sherman, Conn,, 
July, 1798, hence was about four years older than 
Mr. Shipherd. When ten years of age, on account 
of his father's death, he was sent to live with his ma- 
ternal grandfather in Pittsford, Vt., and at the age 
of fourteen he was apprenticed to his uncle in Paw- 
let, Vt., to learn saddle and harness making. In 
this apprenticeship he served seven years, with a term 
of three months each year in the Pawlet Academy, 
a privilege which he greatly prized and thoroughly 
improved. Young Stewart had a natural mechanical 
bent, and was famed as a whittler in his childhood ; 
but the calling to which he devoted these seven years 
of his life did not afford scope for his genius, and 
had no special attractions for him. Under the in- 
fluence of a Christian teacher in the academy, he had 
devoted his life to the Master's service ; and after 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 1 3 

completing his apprenticeship he experienced a sort 
of second conversion, in a conflict with his love of 
money, which seemed a natural tendency in his char- 
acter. Thus he was prepared, at the age of twenty- 
three, to accept an appointment from the American 
Board to a mission among the Choctaws in the state 
of Mississippi. The journey of almost two thousand 
miles to his field of labor he made on horseback, a 
pair of saddle-bags containing his whole outfit. The 
officers of the Board had furnished him seventy dol- 
lars for his travelling expenses. But from the time 
of starting he entered upon his missionary work, and 
preached the Gospel in the families along the way, 
until he reached the Choctaw Nation, at an expense 
to the Board of only ten dollars for himself and his 
horse. 

An important part of his work at the mission was 
the superintendence of its secular affairs, for which 
he was well fitted. In addition he taught the boys' 
school, and with the help of an interpreter held ser- 
vices on the Sabbath in the different Indian settle- 
ments. His health failing, he returned to Vermont 
to recruit, but returned again to the mission, in 1827, 
with a re-enforcement of one young man and three 
young women, whom he took over the long journey 
in a wagon, at an expense only slightly greater than 
that involved in his own journey six years before. 

In 1828 Mr. Stewart, now thirty years of age, mar- 
ried Miss Eliza Capen, one of the young women 
whom he had taken out to the mission, the pre- 
ceding year, from Pittsford, Vt. ; and together they 
wrought in the mission two or three years more, when 



14 OBERLIN. 

Mrs. Stewart's broken health compelled them to re- 
turn North and resign the mission work. Still on 
the outlook for a field of Christian labor, he corre- 
sponded with his old friend, Mr. Shipherd, the com- 
panion of his boyhood at Pawlet Academy ; and as a 
result, leaving Mrs. Stewart behind, he joined him 
at Elyria in the spring of 1832, and became an in- 
mate of his family. Thus the two founders of Ober- 
lin were trained for their work, and finally brought 
together. They were one in consecration to the 
great cause, ready for any sacrifice which the work 
required ; were alike in their general views of the 
wants of the world and the aim of Christian labor; 
were both born reformers, strongly impressed with 
the conviction that the Church as well as the world 
needed to be lifted up to a higher plane of life and 
action, and with an intense purpose to make their 
own lives contribute to this result. 

In constitution and natural movement they were 
greatly unlike. Mr. Shipherd was ardent, hopeful, 
sanguine, disposed to underestimate difficulties and 
obstacles ; while Mr. Stewart was slow and cautious, 
apprehensive of difficulties, and inclined to provide 
for them in advance. It is rare that two men unite 
in a common enterprise who are more unlike in 
natural temperament. They had entire confidence 
in each other, in respect to rectitude of heart and 
purpose; yet their co-operation doubtless involved 
some difficulty. A brief extract from a letter from 
Mr. Stewart to Mr. Shipherd, written soon after 
they had entered upon the Oberlin work, gives inti- 
mation that they sometimes felt the difficulty : " The 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 1 5 

letter was no less acceptable because it contained a 
complaint against your poor, erring brother. I thank 
you for opening your mind so freely — hope you 
will always do so. Then, when you have occasion 
to find fault with what I say or do, if I cannot give 
a justifiable reason for my conduct, I will confess. 
The difference in our views of things arises, no doubt, 
from the cause which you stated, and as long as we 
co-operate together we shall doubtless often feel like 
complaining of each other. But if these complaints 
are given and received in Christian love and kind- 
ness, no injury will be done. You acknowledge that 
you are constitutionally inclined to go too fast, and 
I acknowledge that I am disposed, from the same 
cause, to go too slow. If this be true, a word of ad- 
monition now and then from each other may be 
salutary. . . . But after all, I would not have you 
like me in your constitutional temperament, if I 
could. I think we may balance each other, and be- 
come mutual helps. If you should occasionally feel 
a little impatience at my moderation, and I at your 
impetuosity, it would not be strange ; but if we are 
always in the exercise of that charity which hopeth 
all things, it will be well at the last." 

During the summer of 1832 these two men talked 
and prayed together over the wants of the world, 
and especially of the " Mississippi Valley," and grad- 
ually there grew up in their minds a scheme of a 
community and school where their ideas of Christian 
living and education could be realized. Mr. Ship- 
herd was especially interested in the establishment 
of a community of Christian families, from which, to 



1 6 OBERLIN. 

a great extent, worldly influences should be excluded, 
and where gospel principles should prevail in place 
of worldly views and fashions. At times he seemed 
to incline even to a community of property, as the 
surest means of overruling selfishness, and subordi- 
nating all interests to the common good. It was no 
part of his plan to concentrate the interests of the 
community upon itself. His thought was to estab- 
lish a centre of religious influence and power for the 
generation of forces which should work mightily 
upon the surrounding country and the world — a sort 
of missionary institution for training laborers for the 
work abroad. 

Mr. Stewart, on the other hand, was especially at- 
tracted by the idea of a school where study and 
labor should be combined, and the whole establish- 
ment conducted upon such principles of thrift and 
economy, that enterprising students could defray 
all their expenses by their labor, without any detri- 
ment to their progress in study. His mind re- 
verted to the academy in Pawlet, Vt., where he 
had spent six hours a day in the schoolroom, and 
almost as many in his uncle's shop, and still made 
satisfactory progress in study. The same academy 
furnished an example of young men and young 
women pursuing study together, in the same school 
and the same classes, with increased interest and 
profit, as he thought, on both sides ; and thus his 
ideal school must involve manual labor and co- 
education. 

Mrs. Shipherd shared in their consultations and 
prayers, and in a brief record of those times she thus 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. I J 

gives the scene in which the diverse views became 
consolidated into a common plan : 

" In their deliberations they would exchange 
views ; one would present one point of interest and 
another a different one. Mr. Stewart proposed a 
college, of which Mr. Shipherd could not at first see 
the necessity, as Hudson College was in its infancy, 
and poorly sustained ; but Mr. Stewart suggested 
the manual-labor system, which Mr. Shipherd fully 
approved. Thus they labored and prayed, and while 
on their knees asking guidance, the whole plan de- 
veloped itself to Mr. Shipherd's mind, and before 
rising to his feet he said, ' Come, let us arise and 
build.' He then told Mr. Stewart what had come 
into his mind — to procure a tract of land and collect 
a colony of Christian families that should pledge 
themselves to sustain the school and identify them- 
selves with all its interests. They came down from 
the study, and Mr. Shipherd, with a glowing face, 
said, ' Well, my dear, the child is born, and what 
shall its name be ? ' He then related what had passed 
through his mind." 

John Frederic Oberlin, a German pastor of Wald- 
bach, in the Vosges Mountains, in Eastern France, 
had died a few years before, and an interesting ac- 
count of his labors in elevating the people of his 
parish had been published in this country,as a Sunday- 
school book. This little volume had been recently 
read in Mr. Shipherd's family, and thus Oberlin 
was adopted as the name of the establishment which 
was yet to be. 

The earliest known presentation of the purpose 



1 8 O BERLIN. 

and plan is found in a letter from Mr. Shipherd to 
his father and mother, dated Elyria, August 6, 1832, 
as follows : 

" I have been deeply impressed of late with the 
certainty that the world will never be converted till 
it receive from the Church a better example, more 
gospel laborers, and more money. We do not now 
keep pace with the increase of population in our 
own country. Something must be done, or a millen- 
nium will never cheer our benighted world. The 
Church must be restored to gospel simplicity and 
devotion. As a means which I hope God would 
bless to the accomplishment of some part of this 
work, I propose through his assistance to plant a 
colony somewhere in this region, whose chief aim 
shall be to glorify God, and do good to men, to the 
utmost extent of their ability. They are to simplify 
food, dress, etc., to be industrious and economical, 
and to give all over their current or annual expense 
for the spread of the Gospel. They are to hoard up 
nothing for old age, or for their children, but are 
mutually to covenant that they will provide for the 
widowed, orphan, and all the needy as for themselves 
and families. They are to establish schools of the 
first order, from the infant school up to an academic 
school, which shall afford a thorough education in 
English and the useful languages ; and, if Providence 
favor it, at length instruction in theology — I mean 
practical theology. They are to connect workshops 
and a farm with the institution, and so simplify diet 
and dress that, by four hours' labor per day, young 
men will defray their entire expense, and young wo- 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 1 9 

men working at the spinning-wheel and loom will 
defray much of their expense. And all will thus 
save money, and, what is more, promote muscular, 
mental, and moral vigor. 

" In these schools all the children of the colony are 
to be well educated, whether destined to professional 
or manual labor; for those designing to be mechan- 
ics will learn their trades while in a course of study. 
These schools will also educate school-teachers for 
our desolate Valley, and many ministers for our dying 
world ; also instruct the children and youth of the 
surrounding population. To do this we want some 
twenty-five or more good families, and two thousand 
dollars' outfit for the schools. Dear parents, shall I 
try ? I do feel that such an establishment would 
not only do much itself, but exert a mighty influence 
upon other churches, and lead them along in the 
path of gospel self-denial. 

" I have given you but a brief and imperfect sketch, 
but you will discern its bearings. In all this Brother 
Stewart, formerly assistant missionary to the Choc- 
taws, is with me." 

In a letter to his mother, dated a month later, he 
says : 

" My confidence in the utility of our colonizing 
plan is strengthened by prayer, meditation, and con- 
ference with the intelligent and pious ; yet I feel that 
it is a mighty work, difficult of accomplishment. 
But when any one goes about a great and good 
work Satan will roll mountains in his way. Believ- 
ing that all he has rolled in our way can be sur- 
mounted through the grace of God, and that I can 



20 OBERLIN. 

do more for His honor and the good of souls in this 
valley of dry bones by gathering such a colony and 
planting it, with its literary and religious institutions, 
in this region, I am inclined, Providence favoring, 
to resign my charge, and spend the winter at the 
East for the purpose." 

The resignation followed, and was accepted by the 
church, October 29, 1832. These two men then 
addressed themselves without delay to the work of 
putting forward their favorite enterprise. In the 
selection of a location the general fact had already 
been determined in their minds that they were to 
build somewhere in Northern Ohio, and on the West- 
ern Reserve ; but the definite site remained to be 
selected. Judge Ely, of Elyria, proposed to Mr. 
Shipherd to give for the purpose the land which now 
forms the beautiful portion of the village known as 
" The Point," but which was then covered with a 
dense forest. Another site proposed was in Brown- 
helm, to be constituted of two or three farms lying 
on the beautiful North Ridge Road. But neither of 
these situations gave sufficient scope to Mr. Ship- 
herd's ideal community. There must, in his view, be 
room, for a score or two of farms, for the public 
grounds of a large school, and for the village centre 
which such a community would naturally form. It 
was also essential to his idea, that this community 
should have opportunity to develop its own social 
life, and its social and religious institutions, apart 
from any community already constituted. Hence 
a considerable tract, remote from existing settle- 
ments, must be secured. To buy out any such 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 21 

settlement with its improved lands seemed impos- 
sible. 

The earliest immigrants to this region had natural- 
ly taken up the more accessible and more desirable 
portions of the country — the shore of the lake, the 
pleasant ridges running parallel to the shore, and 
the banks of the larger streams. The level clay 
land of the south part of Russia township remained 
in its primitive state, and the proprietors had 
offered, upon certain conditions, five hundred acres 
of this land for educational purposes. The day fol- 
lowing the season of prayer in which light seemed to 
fall upon their project, Messrs. Shipherd and Stew- 
art mounted their horses, and took their course 
through the woods, about eight miles, to this undis- 
turbed portion of the forest. The line of a road, 
north and south, through the tract had been marked, 
years before, by a party of surveyors, who felled the 
trees for a breadth of about four rods ; and this road- 
way was now grown thickly over with bushes. At 
a certain point on the west side of this roadway, our 
friends dismounted, tied their horses to a tree, and 
knelt under the boughs of another, in prayer for di- 
vine guidance. A hunter came up soon after, who 
informed them that about ten minutes before they ar- 
rived, a black bear with her two cubs had come down 
the tree to which they tied their horses. How our 
friends interpreted this omen we are not told, but 
they settled upon this ground for the Oberlin that 
was to arise; and an undisputed tradition, running 
back to the earliest days of the settlement, designates 
the beautiful elm near the south-east corner of the 



22 OBERLIX. 

college park as the tree under which they knelt to 
pray. That brush-covered road is now Main Street, 
in the village of Oberlin. 

Messrs. Street & Hughes, the owners of this tract, 
resided in New Haven, Conn. Captain Redington, 
of South Amherst, about six miles north, was their 
agent for the sale of the land ; but in a transaction of 
such importance it seemed necessary to treat with 
the proprietors themselves. The colonists, too, who 
were to take possession of this portion of the wil- 
derness, must come chiefly from the East. The de- 
sirable Christian families in the region had already 
passed through the experience of an emigration, and 
the work of making homes in the heavy-timbered 
country ; and one such experience, however enjoy- 
able, suffices in general for a lifetime. Hence those 
must be appealed to who could look with com- 
placency upon such an enterprise. Such people 
lived in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachu- 
setts, and Mr. Shipherd had a wide acquaintance 
among them. Hence a journey must be made to 
New England for the threefold purpose of securing 
the land, the money, and the men. In November, 
1832, Mr. Shipherd undertook this journey. 

The decision to launch out thus upon an untried 
experiment cost him a struggle. He was naturally 
hopeful and sanguine. His life-long habit had been, 
to depend upon Divine guidance, as indicated in 
some inward conviction or illumination. The evi- 
dence that he was to go forward was, to his mind, 
unquestionable. The plan of the enterprise he had 
accepted as divinely given, and through all his re- 




HISTORIC ELM. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 2$ 

maining years he was accustomed to refer to it as 
the pattern shown him in the Mount. But thus far 
he had little human sympathy in his undertaking. 
As a devoted servant of God, and an earnest and 
effective preacher of the Gospel, he had, during the 
two years of his residence in Elyria, secured a wide 
influence. He possessed the confidence of the min- 
isters and the churches of the region. But the 
scheme of a college and a colony, to be located in 
the wilderness, which he presented as the reason for 
his resignation of the pastorate, seemed too vision- 
ary to command the respect of reasonable and pru- 
dent men. His earnestness and devotion and 
intense conviction could scarcely save it from ridi- 
cule. Here and there a single person was brought 
into sympathy with his views. This was the situa- 
tion when he set out on horseback for his eastern 
campaign. Mrs. Shipherd's record gives us some 
insight into the inward conflict : 

" He had his horse saddled at nine o'clock in the 
morning, but was unable to proceed before three in 
the afternoon. The adversary assailed him and 
presented every possible thing to discourage him ; 
he prayed and agonized for light, but the temptation 
continued. He finally started, but had to return ; 
he had forgotten something, and we had to have a 
second parting. The third time he had to turn back, 
but I was not aware of it. He finally proceeded on 
his way a few miles until he came to a piece of 
woods, where he dismounted and fell upon his knees 
and acknowledged to the Lord that he had no de- 
sire for the work if it was not His will, and that he 



24 OBERLIN. 

could not proceed until he had a ' Thus saith the 
Lord.' He arose from his knees with his heart full 
of praise, and remounted his horse with these words, 
1 With Jesus at home ;' and this assurance followed 
him through all his years of travelling without a 
cloud crossing his mind. 

" He accomplished the journey and arrived in New 
Haven in about two weeks, where he stopped with 
friends of ours. The day after his arrival he called 
on Messrs. Street & Hughes, and laid his plan be- 
fore them, and asked the gift of five hundred acres 
for a Manual Labor School, proposing to gather a 
colony of families who should pay a dollar and a half 
an acre, for five thousand acres in addition, repre- 
senting that this would bring their lands into mar- 
ket, and thus prove a mutual benefit. But they 
could not see the prospect. He called on them day 
after day unsuccessfully, until at length he came 
down from his room one morning, and remarked to 
the lady of the house, our friend, ' I shall succeed to- 
day ; ' and she told me afterwards that his face shone 
like the face of Moses. He accordingly went over 
to the office, and after the morning salutations one 
of the firm said, 'Well, Mr. Shiphcrd, we have con- 
cluded to accept your proposition.' They adjusted 
matters, and he was prepared to proceed with his 
work of collecting the colony." 

The arrangement was to sell the five thousand 
acres, bought for one dollar and a half an acre, to 
colonists, at an advance of one dollar an acre, and 
thus secure a fund of five thousand dollars for lay- 
ing the foundations of the college. But Mr. Ship- 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 2$ 

herd engaged that from this fund a saw-mill and a 
grist-mill should be erected, to be owned by the col- 
lege, as these were essential to the very existence 
of the colony, and there was no probability that the 
mills could be erected as a private enterprise. 

It was to be a distinctively Christian colony, and 
this was to be secured by personal consultation, on 
the part of Mr. Shipherd, with families of farmers and 
mechanics in New England churches, who gave 
promise of usefulness in the enterprise, and who 
could be induced to join it. This feature of the 
plan had been criticised in advance by some as an 
undesirable arrangement, involving a waste of Chris- 
tian influence. It was urged that Christians were 
scattered abroad in the community providentially, 
for the very purpose of contact with the world, and 
the good that results from it. Even Mr. Stewart, in 
letters addressed to Mr. Shipherd, while on his east- 
ern tour, expresses his own doubts upon this point. 
But there was little ground for apprehension in the 
matter ; sinners soon found their way to the colony 
without an invitation. 

To secure colonists of the right stamp, and inspire 
them with the true idea of the enterprise, they were 
asked to subscribe to the following covenant, called 

The Oberlin Covenant. 

" Lamenting the degeneracy of the Church and 
the deplorable condition of our perishing world, and 
ardently desirous of bringing both under the entire 
influence of the blessed Gospel of peace ; and view- 



26 OBERLIX. 

in" with peculiar interest the influence which the 
valley of the Mississippi must exert over our nation 
and the nations of the earth; and having, as we 
trust, in answer to devout supplications, been guided 
by the counsel of the Lord : the undersigned cove- 
nant together under the name of the Oberlin Colony, 
subject to the following regulations, which may be 
amended by a concurrence of two thirds of the col- 
onists : 

" i. Providence permitting, we engage as soon as 
practicable to remove to the Oberlin Colony, in Rus- 
sia, Lorain County, Ohio, and there to fix our resi- 
dence, for the express purpose of glorifying God in 
doing good to men to the extent of our ability. 

" 2. We will hold and manage our estates person- 
ally, but pledge as perfect a community of interest 
as though we held a community of property. 

" 3. We will hold in possession no more property 
than we believe we can profitably manage for God, 
as His faithful stewards. 

" 4. We will, by industry, economy, and Christian 
self-denial, obtain as much as we can, above our 
necessary personal or family expenses, and faithfully 
appropriate the same for the spread of the Gospel. 

" 5. That we may have time and health for the 
Lord's service, we will eat only plain and wholesome 
food, renouncing all bad habits, and especially the 
smoking and chewing of tobacco, unless it is neces- 
sary as a medicine, and deny ourselves all strong 
and unnecessary drinks, even tea and coffee, as far 
as practicable, and everything expensive, that is 
simply calculated to gratify the palate. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 2J 

"6. That we may add to our time and health 
money for the service of the Lord, we will renounce 
all the world's expensive and unwholesome fashions 
of dress, particularly tight dressing and ornamental 
attire. 

"7. And yet more to increase our means of serv- 
ing Him who bought us with His blood, we will ob- 
serve plainness and durability in the construction of 
our houses, furniture, carriages, and all that apper- 
tains to us. 

" 8. We will strive continually to show that we, 
as the body of Christ, are members one of another; 
and will, while living, provide for the widows, or- 
phans, and families of the sick and needy, as for 
ourselves. 

" 9. We will take special pains to educate all our 
children thoroughly, and to train them up, in body, 
intellect and heart, for the service of the Lord. 

" 10. We will feel that the interests of the Oberlin 
Institute are identified with ours, and do what we 
can to extend its influence to our fallen race. 

"II. We will make special efforts to sustain the 
institutions of the Gospel at home and among our 
neighbors. 

" 12. We will strive to maintain deep-toned and 
elevated personal piety, to ' provoke each other to 
love and good works,' to live together in all things 
as brethren, and to glorify God in our bodies and 
spirits, which are His. 

" In testimony of our fixed purpose thus to do, 
in reliance on Divine grace, we hereunto affix our 
names." 



28 BERLIN. 

This was not a church covenant but a colonial 
covenant, and secured its end in presenting the pur- 
pose of the colony, and in turning away some that 
might have been drawn into the enterprise by con- 
siderations of these worldly advantages. In so far 
as it goes beyond a general expression of Christian 
consecration, it subsequently afforded occasion of 
earnest discussion, and sometimes, perhaps, of un- 
charitable judgment. It was at length found neces- 
sary to leave the determination of personal duty in 
practical affairs to the individual conscience; and 
thus, after a year or two, the covenant was no longer 
appealed to, in the settlement of differences of 
opinion upon these subjects. It doubtless had its 
part in giving form to the social and religious life of 
the place. 

A prominent plan for raising funds, presented by 
Mr. Shipherd, was the establishment and sale of 
scholarships. Each donor of one hundred and fifty 
dollars was entitled perpetually to the privileges of 
the school for a single pupil. This scholarship did 
not provide for board or tuition or any other of the 
pupil's expenses, but merely secured to him a place 
in the school. The pupil must still meet all his 
expenses, as if he had no scholarship. The money 
paid for the scholarship was to be invested in lands, 
buildings, tools, and all the appliances of a manual- 
labor school, and the holder of the scholarship was 
to be entitled to the advantages which these af- 
forded ; and Mr. Shipherd hoped, and encouraged 
the donors to expect, that industrious and faithful 
students would be able to meet all necessary ex- 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 2g 

peases, by their labor. The idea of the scholarship 
is thus expressed in his first published circular: 

" The one hundred and fifty dollars is the propor- 
tion of the outfit money expended to furnish one 
individual with the privileges of the Oberlin Insti- 
tute. It is therefore reasonable that those who en- 
joy these privileges should pay this cost, if able to 
do it. It is also right that indigent youth of prom- 
ising talent and piety should become the benefici- 
aries of scholarships established by others who have 
the ability. It should be distinctly understood that 
students can be admitted to the boarding and man- 
ual-labor privileges of this seminary, only on scholar- 
ships established by themselves, their friends, or the 
benevolent in their behalf ; and that these scholar- 
ships do not guarantee the student's support, nor 
any part of it, nor pay his tuition ; but they are so 
expended as to furnish board, tuition, books, etc., at 
a very low rate, and give the beneficiary peculiar 
facilities for defraying the expense of these, by those 
services which are necessary, irrespective of support, 
to a finished Christian education." 

The advantage possessed by the holder of the 
scholarship was, the guarantee of a place in the 
school. Others were received and enjoyed the same 
advantages, but they had no promise of a reception. 
During the earlier years, nearly half the applicants 
failed to obtain admittance for want of room. The 
scholarship system at length became the occasion of 
some complaint, when the facilities of the school 
were so extended that all applicants could be re- 
ceived ; but the complaints were of the same nature 



30 OBERLW. 

as those of the laborers of the parable, who received 
every man the promised penny. 

This eastern tour of Mr. Shipherd's to secure 
lands, funds, colonists, and students occupied him 
through the winter and spring and following sum- 
mer, and in September, 1833, he returned to Elyria, 
and to Oberlin. 

Meanwhile Mr. Stewart, joined by Mrs. Stewart in 
the fall of 1832, had remained at Elyria in the care 
of Mr. Shipherd's family, and especially occupied in 
the work of bringing to perfection a cooking-stove 
which he had invented, and which was known as the 
Oberlin stove. His original undertaking was to 
meet a necessity in Mrs. Shipherd's kitchen, by a 
stove made of sheet-iron ; but the work proved so 
satisfactory that he extended the enterprise, in the 
expectation that his invention would not only prove 
useful to the community, but yield a profit which 
should contribute materially to the resources of the 
new enterprise. This was the beginning of the 
Stewart cooking-stove, which has become so well 
known throughout the country. It was his expecta- 
tion that the success of his invention would warrant 
the trustees of the school in taking the pecuniary 
responsibility involved, and thus all the profits might 
go to the school ; but the trustees never felt author- 
ized to assume this responsibility. 

While carrying forward the project of the cook- 
ing-stove, at Elyria, Mr. Stewart had the general 
supervision of the work of the new colony at Oberlin 
meeting the colonists as they came forward from 
the East with information and counsel and encour- 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 3 1 

agement, conducting such correspondence as the 
progress of the work called for, from this point, and 
holding frequent meetings with several gentlemen 
of the region who had consented to act as trustees 
of the enterprise. Thus the work at Oberlin was 
begun. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE WORK OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS. 

The actual commencement of work upon the Ober- 
lin tract was made by Mr. Peter P. Pease of Brown- 
helm, who, April 19, 1833, with his family, moved 
into a log house which he had erected, and which 
stood on the south-east corner of what is now the 
College Park, near the historical elm. Mr. Pease 
was therefore the first colonist. He was also a mem- 
ber of the " Board of Trust" already constituted, al- 
though the school was as yet without any corporate 
existence. The other members of this Board were 
Rev. J. J. Shipherd, Hon. Henry Brown of Brown- 
helm, Capt. E. Redington of Amherst, Rev. Joel 
Talcott of Wellington, Addison Tracy and P. P. 
Stewart of Elyria, J. L. Burrell of Sheffield, and 
Rev. John Keys of Dover ; and these are the persons 
afterwards named as trustees in the charter secured 
from the State Legislature. 

Mr. Pease at once entered upon the work neces- 
sary to prepare the way for the colony and the 
school, without reference to his personal interests as 
a colonist. He was to make such provision as was 
possible for the reception of the colonists as they 
should arrive, and superintend and hasten forward 
the work upon the building which was to receive the 
school. Mr. Shipherd in his ardor had encouraged 



WORK OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS. 33 

the families coming on to expect that a steam saw- 
mill would be in operation in the early part of the 
summer of this year, and had assured the purchasers 
of scholarships that the school should be opened on 
the first of December. When it is remembered that 
the forest was not broken in upon until the middle 
of the spring months, that the tract was almost inac- 
cessible for want of roads, that the entire country 
around was new, and that the simplest mechanical 
service could not be obtained at any point nearer 
than Elyria, eight miles distant, and that there were 
no funds to draw upon for the accomplishment of 
the work, it will be seen that the undertaking was for- 
midable. But these men who constituted the Board 
of Trust were among the substantial men of the 
county, and the undertaking did not seem to them 
preposterous. Mr. Shipherd had somehow infused 
into them his own courage and faith. The colonists 
left their homes under the same inspiration, and all 
who came upon the ground caught the common en- 
thusiasm. There was a single exception in the case 
of a young man, the first who came upon the ground 
from the East, who was very homesick when he 
reached Elyria, was not relieved on coming to Ober- 
lin, and turned his face homeward in early summer, 
greatly disappointed. Such cases must of course 
occur, but they were rare. 

The following extracts from a letter from the ear- 
liest colonists, addressed to Mr. Shipherd, still at the 
East, and dated " Oberlin Colony, Ohio, June II, 
1833," shows the spirit with which they accepted the 
situation : 



34 OBERLIN. 

" The few sheep that are collected at Oberlin re- 
joice at the opportunity of answering your letter 
directed to Bro. Pease, which we yesterday received 
with pleasure. The inquiries you make are very im- 
portant. You ask, ' What are you doing spiritually 
to make a moral reform ? ' We answer, ' Very little; 
we have but just begun.' Through the good pleasure 
of our God we have been preserved and permitted 
to set our feet on the colonial ground ; and it is 
ground, after all the reports we have heard about 
water and mud, although the season has been wet 
and cold. We assure you, brother, it is as good as 
was recommended to us. We fully believe it will sus- 
tain the settlement you propose. We are willing our 
brethren from the East should call and see for them- 
selves, assuring them, if their motive is to do good 
and glorify God in their bodies and spirits, which are 
His, they need not be homesick nor look back, but 
first give themselves to the Lord and then to the 
work. 

" We have had meetings every Sabbath since the 
commencement — had a visit from Bro. Betts [of 
Brownhelm] : he will preach for us every fourth Sab- 
bath till you return. Bro. Leavenworth [also from 
Brownhelm] preached to us the first Sabbath after 
the brethren arrived from Vermont — and a blessed 
day it was, for the Lord was here. The people came 
in from the east, the west, and the south. The num- 
ber from abroad was between twenty and thirty. . . . 

" We trust you cease not to pray for us that we may 
be guided in every path of duty and usefulness, and 
above all that we may love one another with pure 



WORK- OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS. 35 

hearts, fervently. . . . Bro. Morgan, from Lockport, ex- 
pects to move in to-morrow : we have built his house 
on the east side of the road, near the bank of Plum 
Creek ;* we live on the west side, opposite. We have 
commenced our clearing, beginning at the centre, 
and moving south and west ; have about twenty 
acres now chopped — four cleared off ; are planting 
two of it to corn, more than one we sow to oats and 
grass for a little pasture, The remainder is occupied 
by two log houses and the site for the boarding-house 
and schoolroom. The school [college] will be in the 
upper loft ; we have the timber all hewed, but one 
day's work. The delay of the mill we regret very 
much ; but as all things work together for good, we 
hope to acquiesce in all things, and shall endeavor to 
arrange all our affairs in accordance with the Divine 
will, believing that the Lord will accomplish His own 
purpose by us for time and eternity. . . . 

"The brethren have mostly selected and procured 
their land and are now chopping their village lots, 
which will make a pleasant opening on the east side 
of the road. We have about fifty cords of wood cut 
for the engine. We can say ' Thus far the Lord 
hath helped us ; ' may we ever acknowledge Him ! 
Dear brother, pray for the peace of the colony. We 
have a special prayer-meeting every Saturday even- 
ing, in which we remember you, and hope to be re- 
membered by you." 

The writers speak of four Sabbath-schools in neigh- 

* Morgan Street, running along the north side of his farm, was 
named for him. He died many years ago. 



3G OBERLIN. 

boring settlements, which they had established or 
were about to open. This letter was signed by 
all the men then on the ground, as follows: Peter 
P. Pease, Brewster Pelton, Samuel Daniels, Philip 
James, Pringle Hamilton, Wm. Hosford, Asahel 
Munger, Harvey Gibbs, Jacob J. Safford, Daniel 
Morgan. Three or four women only were here at 
the time. Several of these colonists had come in 
advance of their families, to make ready for them. 
Several other families joined the colony during the 
season. 

Mr. Shipherd returned early in September, and re- 
moved his family to Oberlin. He had engaged the 
number of families that he supposed it desirable to 
invite, had enlisted a considerable number of students 
who were to join the school at its opening in Decem- 
ber or the following spring, had looked up and se- 
cured the appointment of the necessary teachers, and 
had raised a fund, in contributions and subscriptions, 
amounting to nearly fifteen thousand dollars. His 
journey back to Ohio was characteristic of the man 
and the times. Mrs. Shipherd had gone in the early 
summer, with a babe six weeks old in her arms, to 
her father's home in Ballston, N. Y. There Mr. 
Shipherd joined her in August, and in an open bug- 
gy, with a willow cradle at their feet, they made the 
journey to Ohio, remembered by Mrs. Shipherd, to 
the last, as the most pleasant journey of their lives. 
The last two miles of the road before reaching 
Oberlin was only a track cleared of underbrush, 
winding among the trees, the roots of which extend- 
ing across the track made it so rough that Mrs. Ship- 



WORK OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS. 37 

herd could not keep her seat, and she walked that 
portion of the way with her babe in her arms. 

The first college building, afterward known as 
Oberlin Hall, was already enclosed ; and in a room 
about fifteen feet square and seven feet high, in the 
basement of that building, Mr. and Mrs. Shipherd 
with their four little boys, and another family with 
three or four boarders, found their home. 

The steam-engine, constructed at Cleveland, was 
brought on in October, and the saw-mill was soon in 
operation. 

The teachers engaged at the East could not come 
on in time, and a student from Western Reserve Col- 
lege, at Hudson, Mr. John F. Scovill, was invited to 
take temporary charge of the school, at its opening; 
and on the third day of December, 1833, the school 
was opened. This opening was an occasion of solemn 
rejoicing on the part of the little community of col- 
onists and students. The evening preceding, they 
were gathered to ask God's blessing upon the enter- 
prise ; and during the progress of the meeting young 
Scovill reached the place, and entered the little upper 
room where they were gathered together. After list- 
ening for a time to prayers and remarks he rose to 
speak, and his first words were, " Put off thy shoes 
from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is 
holy ground." 

At this time there were eleven families on the 
ground. Several men who had spent a portion of 
the summer and autumn here, had returned East, 
expecting to bring on their families in the spring. 
Forty-four students were in attendance during this 



3 8 BERLIN. 

winter term — twenty-nine young men and fifteen 
young women. Half of them were from the East, 
the remainder from the neighboring towns. In ad- 
dition, a primary school was organized as a depart- 
ment of the institution, embracing the children of 
the colony, about twenty in number, and taught by 
Miss Eliza Branch, now Mrs. Geo. Clark, of Oberlin. 
This primary school was in the original plan, but, 
after the first winter, it was judged better to leave 
the people of the place to provide for the elementary 
education of their children, in connection with the 
common-school system of the State. 

This was the first practical trial of the system of 
education which was to be introduced at Oberlin. 
The students gathered here were, with few excep- 
tions, mature, earnest young people, ready for any 
effort or sacrifice necessary in obtaining an educa- 
tion, and this continued to be their character through 
the years that followed. They entered into the 
work with enthusiasm, and identified themselves with 
the enterprise. The one wooden building, about 
thirty-five by forty feet in its dimensions, with two 
regular stories, and a third story called an attic, made 
by carrying up the central part about twenty feet in 
width, so that small windows could be inserted along 
the sides above the main roof — this one building con- 
tained the college with all its operations for more 
than a year. There was, however, an appendage in 
the rear, embracing the kitchen and apartments for 
the steward. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart presided in the 
steward's department, and had the responsibility of 
feeding the inmates. In the basement room, before 



WORK OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS. 39 

mentioned, lived the corresponding secretary and 
general agent, Mr. Shipherd, with his family. His 
office, the centre of all business for the college and 
the colony, was in the room above, where also the 
principal of the school found his study. Across the 
hall or corridor was the dining-room, and above was 
the schoolroom, chapel, and church, all in one. This 
room, the scene of many interesting events and ex- 
periences during the two years following, was called 
in general " The Chapel." It was the place for the 
religious and literary exercises of the school, and for 
the gathering of the entire community on the Sab- 
bath — a room about eighteen feet wide and thirty- 
five long. On every public occasion it was packed 
to its utmost capacity. The young women of the 
school family were closely quartered in this second 
story of the building, over against the chapel, while 
the young men were sent into the " attic," where each 
pair of them found a room eight feet square, with a 
window of six small lights, above the head of the 
student as he sat. This room was furnished with 
stove, table, two chairs, and turn-up bedstead. 
These occupied the entire area when the bedstead 
was let down, as at night ; but during the day the 
bed was tilted up against the side of the room, and 
then there was space to spare. 

Of course only sympathy with the enterprise 
could make such accommodations tolerable ; but it 
is doubtful whether any body of students was ever 
more cheerful or better satisfied. A letter from Mr. 
Shipherd to his parents, dated December 13, 1833, 
gives his views of the situation at this time : 



40 OBERLW. 

" The Lord is to be praised that we were enabled 
to open our institution at the appointed time, De- 
cember 3d. We have now thirty-four boarding 
scholars, and expect forty for the winter. Appli. 
cants are without number, from Lake Erie to the 
Gulf of Mexico, and from Michigan to the Atlantic. 
The scholars study and work well. Five minutes 
after the manual-labor bell strikes, the hammers, 
saws, etc., of the mechanical students wake all 
around us, and the axe-men in the woods, breaking 
' the ribs of Nature,' make all crack. Nearly all our 
visitors, and they are not few, express surprise that 
so great a work has been wrought here in so short a 
time. God be praised. I feel, as I said in my sleep 
the other night, ' Oberlin will rise, and the devil can- 
not hinder it.' This very sweet assurance, I hope, 
rests on God, without whom we can do nothing." 

In February of this winter the college was char- 
tered by the Legislature of the state, with university 
privileges, under the name of the Oberlin Collegiate 
Institute. Mr. Shipherd preferred this name as less 
assuming than Oberlin College, and because it was 
apprehended that it might be some time before regu- 
lar college work would be done in the school. Yet 
such work and even more was in his plan. In a 
circular published March 8, 1834, — the first circular, 
probably, that was issued, — he thus states the work 
proposed: 

" The grand objects of the Oberlin Institute are, 
to give the most useful education at the least ex- 
pense of health, time, and money; and to extend 
the benefit of such education to both sexes and to 



WORK OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS. 41 

all classes of the community, as far as its means will 
allow. Its system embraces thorough instruction in 
every department, from the infant school up through 
a collegiate and theological course. While care will 
be taken not to lower the standard of intellectual 
culture, no pains will be spared to combine with it 
the best physical and moral education. Prominent 
objects of this seminary are, the thorough qualifica- 
tion of Christian teachers, both for the pulpit and for 
schools ; and the elevation of female character, by 
bringing within the reach of the misjudged and neg- 
lected sex all the instructive privileges which have 
hitherto unreasonably distinguished the leading sex 
from theirs." 

The name Collegiate Institute was retained for 
many years, but as it led to much misapprehension, 
as implying that the school had not the full organi- 
zation and work of a college, the trustees in 1850 
secured from the Legislature a change of the name 
to Oberlin College. 

The summer term opened May 7, 1834. Rev. 
Seth H. Waldo, a graduate of Amherst and of Ando- 
ver, who had been elected Professor of Languages, 
with the duties of principal of the school until a full 
faculty should be constituted, had arrived a few 
days before, with his wife, recently married. Three 
days after the opening of the term, James Dascomb, 
M.D., from the Dartmouth Medical College, reached 
the place with his newly married wife. He had re- 
ceived the appointment of Professor of Chemistry, 
Botany, and Physiology. Mr. Daniel Branch and 
Mrs. Branch, a sister of Mr. Waldo, came about the 



42 OBERLIN. 

same time. He too was a graduate of Amherst. 
He was afterward principal of the academy in Ches- 
ter, Granger County, where James A. Garfield began 
his course of study. Mrs. Dascomb, who had been 
a pupil of Miss Grant of Ipswich, afterwards Mrs. 
Bannister, was soon made principal of the Ladies' 
Department. Mr. Branch became Principal of the 
Preparatory Department, and Mrs. Branch teacher 
of Latin, French, and of other branches as occasion 
required. Thus the new school was at once manned 
by a corps of enthusiastic and efficient young teach- 
ers, trained in the institutions of New England. 
Oberlin, therefore, as a community and a school, 
was the product of New England ideas and culture 
and life. The founders, the colonists, the students, 
and the teachers, were all from New England, most 
of them directly, the rest indirectly. 

The day before this regular opening, under per- 
manent teachers, many students having already 
come in, a meeting of the young men was held in 
the narrow passage hall of the " attic," each student 
bringing out his chair and sitting by his own door, 
and a literary society was organized, called the 
Oberlin Lyceum — the first literary society upon the 
ground. This lyceum existed about two years, and 
then gave place to other societies. It was not the 
same as the society afterward known as the Lyce- 
um, and now as the Phi Kappa Pi. The old lyceum 
expired without any legal successor. 

During this first summer term, there were one 
hundred and one students in attendance — sixty-three 
young men and thirty-eight young women. These 




DR. JAMES DASCOMB. 




MARIANNE P. DASCOMB. 



WORK OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS. 43 

filled every available corner of the building and the 
settlement, and many places which, under other con- 
ditions, would not be thought available. Everything 
was new and rough. The trees had been cut from 
the college square, but the stumps were still strong 
in the ground, and so numerous, that an agile boy 
might propose to cross the square by springing 
from stump to stump. The roads near the centre 
had been opened to the sunlight, but not thrown up 
or ditched, and teams were sometimes mired in 
front of the college building. At a greater distance 
the roads were still only tracks through the forest ; 
and it was not an uncommon thing even for young 
women, coming to the school, to walk the last two 
or three miles of the way. Two came from Elyria, 
eight miles, in this independent fashion. The en- 
thusiasm of the new enterprise made all things 
tolerable. 

The colony kept even pace in its progress with the 
school. Mr. Pelton moved his hotel from the log- 
house, first erected, to a comfortable frame building 
on the corner now occupied by the principal hotel. 
It was for a time a question whether the hotel under 
the colonial covenant could furnish tea and coffee 
to its customers ; but it was at length concluded 
that to refuse would be carrying the principle farther 
than was " practicable." Such questions as this, in 
the social meetings, diversified the busy life of the 
colonists. 

A small flouring-mill was erected, to be driven by 
the same engine which moved the saw-mill, also 
machines for cutting lath and shingles. These ma- 



44 OBERLItf. 

chines furnished labor for several students ; and the 
whole establishment was owned by the college — a 
constant source, of course, of annoyance and ex- 
pense, but a necessity of the new settlement. As 
soon as opportunity offered the mills were sold, and 
became the property of individuals. 

To meet the growing necessities of the college, 
another college building was erected, known in after 
years as the Boarding Hall, or Ladies' Hall, the 
main part forty by eighty feet, three stories high, 
with two wings of two stories each. This was not 
made ready for occupancy until the autumn of 1835, 
a year, and more, from its commencement. Want of 
funds, and the effort to have a large portion of the 
work done by students, delayed the enterprise. 

It was an encouraging fact to the students and 
colonists that, in the midst of these labors and de- 
privations incident to the settlement of a new coun- 
try, no sickness prevailed among them. There was 
some sickness among young children during the 
warm weather of 1834, otherwise the health was un- 
interrupted. Very satisfactory progress was made 
in study ; yet interruptions occurred such as would 
be inadmissible under more settled conditions. 
When the new boarding-house was to be " raised," 
the students were called out in a body, and all study 
was suspended for three days. Now and then a 
temperance man in some neighboring settlement, 
not finding his neighbors ready to assist him in his 
" raising," without the support of the bottle, would 
send word in to the students, who would rally at 
once in the good cause, and sacrifice a day's study 



WORK OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS. 45 

to their temperance principles. Oberlin was as ag- 
gressive and reformatory at this time as in after 
years, only that the direction which its reformatory 
efforts should take was not fully determined. Tea 
and coffee were excluded from the tables in the 
College Hall, and for the most part discarded in 
private families. A plain, substantial diet was fur- 
nished, at a very moderate expense. The charge for 
board in the Hall was seventy-five cents a week, for 
a purely vegetable diet, and a dollar for the addition 
of meat twice a day. 

The first "Annual Report," published in Novem- 
ber, 1834, estimates the entire expense of the stu- 
dent for all his requirements, except clothing, during 
the forty weeks of term time, as ranging from fifty- 
eight to eighty-nine dollars. This amount was 
readily covered, in most cases, by the avails of the 
labor required of the student, four hours each day, 
for which he received, according to his skill and 
power of accomplishment, from four to seven cents 
an hour. The arrangement seemed a great success ; 
the expenses were reduced to the minimum, and the 
student's labor provided for this. To the apprehen- 
sion of the more considerate, there was one draw- 
back. This labor of the student was not made to 
supply the constant expenditure. It yielded no 
money to the college nor even food for the supply 
of the tables. It was wholly expended in improve- 
ments, the erection of buildings, and the clearing of 
the land. These improvements were needed, but it 
was a question whether they could be afforded; and 



46 OBERLW. 

whence was to come the supply for this constant ex- 
penditure? 

The arrangement of terms and vacations adopted 
at this time involved continuous study through the 
summer for the regular classes, with a winter vaca- 
tion of twelve weeks, and continuous study through 
the winter for the junior preparatory department, 
with a long summer vacation. This arrangement 
was intended to give the advanced students an op- 
portunity to take schools for the winter, and those 
in the beginning of their course opportunity for 
summer work at their homes. This order, with some 
variations, was continued until 1878. 

The first college class was organized near the end 
of October, 1834, consisting of four young men, 
who came forward for examination to enter as 
freshmen. Two of these had pursued their prepara- 
tory studies in an academy at Brownhelm, and in 
the Elyria High School ; another was from Phillips 
Academy, Andover, Mass. They were all well pre- 
pared, for those times, and would have been ad- 
mitted to any college in the country. 

The first " commencement," or anniversary, was 
held on the twenty-ninth of October. As there 
were none to graduate, these entering freshmen were 
brought upon the stage, and a few others of the 
more advanced students. The trustees were pres- 
ent, and several visitors from neighboring towns. 
The little chapel was crowded. The programme 
presented, among other exercises, a Latin oration, 
a Greek oration, and a colloquy, the aim of which 
was to maintain the orthodox opinion on the sub- 



WORK OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS. 47 

ject of classical education. Thus closed the school 
year of 1833-34. 

Early in September of this year a church was 
organized, called " The Congregational Church of 
Christ at Oberlin," now known as " The First Con- 
gregational Church of Oberlin." Sixty-two persons 
united at the organization, colonists and students. 
The confession of faith was Calvinistic in doctrine, 
after the New England type ; and the church con- 
nected itself with the Cleveland Presbytery upon 
"The Plan of Union," after the fashion of the 
churches of Northern Ohio. Rev. J. J. Shipherd 
was at once called to become pastor of the church, 
but in consequence of pressing duties as correspond- 
ing secretary and general agent of the college, his 
acceptance of the call was delayed until the follow- 
ing year. Meanwhile he officiated as pastor while 
present, and in his absence Mr. Waldo, the princi- 
pal of the school, usually preached. 

Several houses were erected on Main Street and 
around the college square, during the year, giving 
the town quite the aspect of a village, and Mr. 
Hamilton's house, far in the woods, a mile south. 
At a colonial meeting the principles of the Oberlin 
Covenant were brought to bear upon the question, 
What color shall we paint our houses? It was 
clearly demonstrated that red was the most durable 
and least expensive color; and thus it was voted, 
not without earnest remonstrance on the part of 
some, that the houses of the village should be 
painted red. But a vote on such a question does 
not always settle it. Each man claimed the right 



48 OBERLIJST. 

to act according to his own judgment ; and three 
dwelling-houses and the college shop were all the 
buildings that ever submitted to the coating of red, 
and these only for a few years. So early, under the 
Oberlin Covenant, did taste begin to prevail over 
stern utility. 

Two years had now passed since Mr. Shipherd set 
out alone on horseback to realize his plan. The re- 
sult thus far was a community of thirty-five families, 
a church of above eighty members, a college num- 
bering a hundred students, with land and buildings 
and other property valued at seventeen thousand 
dollars, and such a movement toward the school 
that large numbers of applicants had to be turned 
away. Here and there appeared indications of dis- 
favor toward the enterprise, partly because of the 
peculiar constitution of the school, opening its doors 
to both sexes, but chiefly because it seemed to come 
into competition with Western Reserve College, 
which had been established ten years before, and had 
pre-emption rights in the territory. Some of the 
trustees of Oberlin were warm friends of W. R. 
College, and Judge Brown, the first chairman of the 
Board at Oberlin, was a prominent founder and 
trustee of W. R. College ; but at the close of this 
second year he resigned his connection at Oberlin, 
because, as he said, he could not " stand between 
two fires." The founders of Oberlin were in heart 
friendly to W. R. College, and had no thought of 
opposition or rivalry. In his first annual report Mr. 
Shipherd says : " Being distinctive in its character, 
it was thought by the principal of the nearest liter- 



WORK OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS. 49 

ary institution [Elyria High School] to be no more 
an interference with that or others in the neighbor- 
hood, than if located more remotely. It stands not 
as a competitor, but as a sister of all institutions of 
Christian science." A little consideration, however, 
would have suggested that the two colleges, less 
than fifty miles apart, must depend essentially upon 
the same constituency. The lines had already be- 
gun to be drawn between the friends of W. R. Col- 
lege and the friends of Oberlin. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY AND CON- 
SEQUENT ENLARGEMENT. 

The college year had closed ; the more advanced 
students had gone to their winter schools or their 
homes, and the less advanced had, according to the 
arrangment, resumed their studies for the winter term. 
Mr. Shipherd, under instructions from the trustees, 
set his face eastward again, to look for a president 
and a professor of mathematics, as well as to secure 
funds to meet the growing demands of the work. 

In a season of fasting and prayer, his habitual pre- 
paration for a new movement, he received the im- 
pression that he must go by Cincinnati : an impression 
which he could give no account of, and which he at 
first resisted as unreasonable. He knew no one at 
Cincinnati, and he had special reasons, as he thought, 
for going directly eastward ; but the impression in- 
creased upon him, until it ripened into a conviction 
which he dared not set aside ; and thus he took his 
journey to the East by way of Cincinnati — a route 
to New York from Northern Ohio which no one per- 
haps ever took before. 

Having reached Cincinnati, so worn out with the 
journey that he was obliged to take his bed for the 
day, he at length called on Rev. Asa Mahan, pastor 
of the Sixth Street Presbyterian Church, from whom 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. 5 1 

he soon ascertained the reason for his going by Cin- 
cinnati. 

A movement had been inaugurated in Lane Semi- 
nary, a theological school at Walnut Hills, near the 
city, which Mr. Shipherd saw at once might be 
brought into connection with the Oberlin enterprise. 
Of this movement there was no general knowledge 
at Oberlin, and that Mr. Shipherd had heard of it 
cannot be ascertained. The era of newspapers, rail- 
roads, and telegraphs had not yet come. The facts 
were these : Lane Seminary had been in existence 
two or three years, and had collected a class of stu- 
dents of unusual ability and energy. Many of these 
were from Oneida Institute, a school which enjoyed a 
few years of vigorous life in Central New York. They 
were manual-labor students, energetic and self-rely- 
ing. As an indication of their spirit, it may be stated 
that, in going from Oneida to Lane, some of them 
went down the Alleghany and Ohio as hands on flat- 
boats, and pocketed a handsome purse to begin their 
studies upon at Cincinnati. Among these Oneida 
students was Theodore D. Weld, a young man of 
surpassing eloquence and logical power, and of a 
personal influence even more fascinating than his 
eloquence. Besides these Oneida students, there 
were others at Lane, prominent actors in the move- 
ment, some of them, as James A. Thome and Wil- 
liam T. Allan, sons of slaveholders, and linked to 
slavery in all their worldly interests. The whole 
number of students there at the time was above one 
hundred. Many of these were not theological stu- 
dents, but were connected with a literary department 



52 OBERLIN. 

in preparation for theology, under the charge of 
Professor Morgan. The theological Professors were 
Dr. Lyman Beecher, Professor Stowe, and another 
gentleman unknown to fame. 

About this time (as early at least as 1833) the 
quiet of Boston and New York, and some other 
Eastern cities, had been disturbed by the startling 
utterances of Wm. Lloyd Garrison and his Liberator. 
He had taken issue with the Colonization Society, 
and called on all honest men to stand aloof from it, 
as false in principle and pernicious in its influence. 
He enforced the duty of immediate and uncondi- 
tional emancipation, as the only right and safe course. 
" Slavery is a sin, and ought to be immediately aban- 
doned," was in those days the burden of his proph- 
ecy. Men of strong anti-slavery feeling were at 
once brought over by his facts and his logic. Weld, 
too, in the quiet of Lane Seminary, was moved, and 
others with him. The students requested of the 
Faculty the use of the public room occupied as a 
chapel for the discussion of slavery. The Faculty 
recommended quiet — rather discountenanced the 
discussion, but did not prohibit it. The students 
gathered in the chapel, and for eighteen successive 
evenings continued their debate. At the outset 
there was great diversity of sentiment, but in the 
end the antislavery view prevailed almost unani- 
mously. We may well suppose that the discussion 
would be earnest and thorough, for there were men 
there whose course for life was to turn upon the re- 
sult. It was not like an ordinary discussion in a lit- 
erary society, where the main interest lies in the 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. 53 

debate itself. Some of the young men well knew 
that the position they took might alienate friends, 
and prevent for many years, perhaps forever, a re- 
turn to the homes of their youth. Yet even these 
were convinced, and took their stand against slavery 
at the sacrifice of friends and home. 

As a result of the anti-slavery movement in the 
Seminary, the young men were stirred up to do 
something for the colored people in the city. They 
gathered them in Sabbath-schools, and established 
day-schools among them, and made use of all the 
means at hand to elevate and advance them. Some 
of the ladies of the city aided in the establishment 
and superintendence of the schools. The efforts were 
not limited to the colored people. Communications 
were sent to the religious journals, which elicited 
spirited discussions that attracted the attention of 
the city generally. Movements like these disturbed 
the quiet of the trustees of the Seminary, some of 
whom were wholly men of commerce, and under- 
stood better the pork market than the management 
of a literary institution. Others sympathized in the 
general apprehension of evil from the anti-slavery 
excitement. 

The summer vacation of twelve weeks came on, 
and Professors Beecher and Stowe and Morgan had 
left for the East. The students, too, were mainly 
scattered. The trustees held a meeting at this 
juncture, and passed a law, without any consultation 
with the Faculty, except the single member who re- 
mained, prohibiting the discussion of slavery among 
the students, both in public and in private. They 



54 OBERLIN. 

were not to be allowed to communicate with each 
other on the subject, even at the table in the Semi- 
nary commons. At the same time the trustees 
dispatched a message to Professor Morgan, in New 
York, that his services were no longer required. 
No reason was assigned him for so abrupt a termina- 
tion of his relations. Perhaps they already appre- 
hended, what they soon realized, that his occupation 
was gone. But in the Seminary it was well under- 
stood that he was sacrificed on account of his sym- 
pathy with the anti-slavery movement. The other 
professors returned to swallow, as best they could, 
the bitter pill which had been prescribed for them. 
The students returned to enter their protest against 
the oppressive gag law of the trustees, and to ask 
dismissions from the institution. Four fifths of them 
left in a body, and Lane Seminary for many years 
did not recover from the blow. 

The protesting students, upon the invitation of 
James Ludlow, a gentleman of property who resided 
a few miles from the city, took possession of a 
building which he provided for them ; and for five 
months they continued their studies together, with 
such instruction as they could afford each other, and 
a course of lectures on physiology given them 
by Dr. Bailey, afterwards editor of the National 
Era. Arthur Tappan, of New York, sent them an 
offer of S5000 for a building, and the promise of a 
professorship, if they would establish a school under 
anti-slavery principles and influences. Mr. Mahan, 
one of the trustees of Lane Seminary, had protested 
earnestly against the action which had been taken, 



The accession from lane seminary. 55 

and had resigned his place when he saw that the 
majority would pass and sustain the odious law pro- 
hibiting the discussion of slavery. He was in sym- 
pathy with the protesting students, and between 
him and Mr. Shipherd the plan was devised of add- 
ing at once a Theological Department to Oberlin, 
and bringing on the seceding students from Lane to 
constitute the first theological classes. Mr. Ship- 
herd's anti-slavery zeal was quickened by contact 
with the exciting influences there; and under date 
of December 15, 1834, he writes to the trustees at 
Oberlin, urging the appointment of Rev. Asa Mahan 
as President, and Rev. John Morgan, Professor of 
Mathematics. He also writes : " I desire you, at the 
first meeting of the trustees, to secure the passage 
of the following resolution, to wit : ' Resolved, That 
students shall be received into this Institution irre- 
spective of color.' This should be passed because it 
is a right principle, and God will bless us in doing 
right. Also because thus doing right we gain the 
confidence of benevolent and able men, who prob- 
ably will furnish us some thousands. Moreover, 
Bros. Mahan and Morgan will not accept our invita- 
tion unless this principle rule. Indeed, if our Board 
would violate right so as to reject youth of talent 
and piety because they were black, I should have no 
heart to labor for the upbuilding of our Seminary, 
believing that the curse of God would come upon us, 
as it has upon Lane Seminary, for its unchristian 
abuse of the poor slave." 

This letter was in care of the acting Secretary at 
Oberlin, and of course was communicated to the 



56 BERLIN. 

officers and teachers on the ground. The idea of 
receiving colored students was a new one, and the 
people of Oberlin were not prepared to embrace it 
at once. They knew no precedents in its favor. No 
such thing, so far as they knew, had been heard of 
in the land, or in any other land. There was earnest 
discussion and intense excitement. It was believed 
by many that the place would be at once over- 
whelmed with colored students, and the mischiefs 
that would follow were frightful in the extreme. 
Men who afterwards stood manfully in the anti- 
slavery ranks, when the battle was hottest, and 
whose lives had shown that they could face duty in 
its most forbidding aspects, were alarmed in view of 
the unknown and undefined evil which threatened. 
Young ladies who had come from New England to 
the school in the wilderness — young ladies of un- 
questioned refinement and goodness — declared that 
if colored students were admitted to equal privileges 
in the Institution they would return to their homes, 
if they had to " wade Lake Erie" to accomplish it. 
These same young ladies afterward showed their New 
England spirit, not in wading Lake Erie, but in stem- 
ming a torrent of abuse and reproach, which they en- 
countered in their fearless advocacy of the cause of 
the oppressed. The excitement here was intense, 
and was not at all allayed by an arrangement on the 
part of the trustees to hold their session in Elyria, 
in the hope of finding a calmer atmosphere, more 
congenial to deliberation. This session was held at 
the Temperance House in Elyria, on the 1st of 
January, 1835. A petition was presented to the 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. 57 

Board, signed by the principal colonists, and by 
several students who remained during the vacation. 
It reads as follows : 

To the Honorable Board of Trustees of the Oberlin Collegiate Insti- 
tute assembled at Elyria: 
Whereas, there has been, and is now, among the colonists and 
students of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute a great excitement in 
their minds in consequence of a resolution of Brother J. J. Ship- 
herd, to be laid before the Board, respecting the admission of 
people of color into the Institution, and also of the Board's meet- 
ing at Elyria: now, your petitioners, feeling a deep interest in the 
Oberlin Collegiate Institute, and feeling that every measure pos- 
sible should be taken to quell the alarm, that there shall not be a 
root of bitterness springing up to cause a division of interest and 
feeling (for a house divided against itself cannot stand); therefore, 
your petitioners respectfully request that your honorable body will 
meet at Oberlin, that your deliberations may be heard and known 
on the great and important questions in contemplation. We feel 
for our black brethren — we feel to want your counsels and instruc- 
tions; we want to know what is duty, and, God assisting us, we 
will lay aside every prejudice, and do as we shall be led to 
believe that God would have us to do. 

The trustees were in a state of doubt and per- 
plexity, corresponding with the condition of the 
petitioners as here presented. Their action was 
conservative and non-committal. The record reads 
as follows : 

Whereas, information has been received from Rev. J. J. Ship- 
herd, expressing a wish that students may be received into this 
Institution irrespective of color; therefore, resolved, that this 
Board do not feel prepared, till they have more definite informa- 
tion on the subject, to give a pledge respecting the course they 
will pursue in regard to the education of the people of color, wish- 
ing that this Institution should be on the same ground, in respect 
to the admission of students, with other similar institutions of our 
land. 



58 o Berlin: 

At the same session of the trustees President 
Mahan and Professor Morgan were appointed, ac- 
cording to the request of Mr. Shipherd, although the 
platform on which they had placed themselves was 
not adopted. 

The report of the failure of the trustees to take 
the action he desired, reached Mr. Shipherd at New 
York, whither he had gone, in company with Mr. 
Mahan, to confer with Arthur and Lewis Tappan, 
and other antislavery men of the city, in reference to 
the proposal to bring to Oberlin the students who 
had left Lane Seminary, establish a theological de- 
partment, and place the institution upon a distinc- 
tively antislavery basis. He was grieved, but not 
cast down. He wrote again to the Trustees, and 
especially sent a pastoral epistle to the people of 
Oberlin overflowing with faithful love to all, review- 
ing the way in which the Lord had led them, exhort- 
ing them to patient continuance in well-doing, and 
warning them against yielding to a worldly spirit 
and worldly principles. At length he reaches the 
matter which chiefly burdens his heart, and con- 
tinues as follows : 

"My fears are excited by your recent expressions 
of unwillingness to have youth of color educated in 
our Institute. Those expressions were a grief to 
me, such as I have rarely suffered. Although I 
knew that with some of you the doctrine of expedi- 
ency was against the immediate abolition of slavery, 
because the slaves are. not qualified for freedom, I 
supposed you thought it expedient and duty to 
elevate and educate them as fast as possible ; that, 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. $9 

therefore, you would concur in receiving those of 
promising talent and piety into our institution. So 
confident was I that this would be the prevailing 
sentiment of Oberlin, in the colony and institution, 
that about a year ago I informed eastern inquirers 
that we received students according to character, 
irrespective of color. And, beloved, whatever the 
expediency or prejudice of some may say, does not 
duty require this? Most certainly; for, I. They are 
needed as ministers, missionaries, and teachers for 
the land of their fathers, and for their untaught, 
injured, perishing brethren of our country. 2. Their 
education seems highly essential, if not indispensa- 
ble, to the emancipation and salvation of their col- 
ored brethren. 3. They will be elevated far more 
rapidly if taught with whites, hitherto far more 
favored, than if educated separately. 4. The ex- 
tremity of their wrongs at the white man's hand 
requires that the best possible means be employed, 
and without delay, for their elevation. 5. They can 
nowhere enjoy needed education unless admitted to 
our institution, or others established for whites. 
6. God made them of one blood with us ; they are 
our fellows. 7. They are our neighbors, and whatso- 
ever we would they should do unto us, we must do 
unto them, or become guilty before God. Suppose, 
beloved, your color were to become black, what 
would you claim, in this respect, to be your due as 
neighbors? 8. Those we propose to receive are the 
' little ones' of Christ. We must take heed how we 
offend one of these little ones. 9. The objection to 
associating with them for the purpose of doing them 



60 OBERLW. 

good, is like the objection of the Pharisees against 
our Saviour's eating and drinking with publicans 
and sinners. 10. Intermarriage with the whites is 
not asked, and need not be feared. II. None of 
you will be compelled to receive them into your 
families, unless, like Christ, the love of your neigh- 
bor compels you to. 12. Those who desire to re- 
ceive and educate them have the same right to do it 
that Christ had to eat with publicans and sinners. 
13. Colored youth have been educated at other in- 
stitutions for whites. 14. They will doubtless be 
received to all such institutions by and by ; and why 
should beloved Oberlin wait to do justice and show 
mercy till all others have done it? Why hesitate 
to lead in the cause of humanity and of God? 15. 
Colored youth cannot be rejected through fear that 
God will be dishonored if they are received. 16. How- 
ever it may be with you, brethren, I know that it 
was only the pride of my wicked heart that caused 
me to reject them while I did. 17. If we refuse to 
deliver our brother, now drawn unto death, I cannot 
hope that God will smile upon us. 18. The men 
and money which would make our institution most 
useful cannot be obtained if we reject our colored 
brother. Eight professorships and ten thousand 
dollars are subscribed, upon condition that Rev. 
C. G. Finney become Professor of Theology in our 
Institute; and he will not, unless the youth of color 
are received. Nor will President Mahan nor Pro- 
fessor Morgan serve unless this condition is complied 
with ; and they all are the men we need, irrespective 
of their antislavery sentiments. 19. If you suffer 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. 6 1 

expediency and prejudice to pervert justice in this 
case you will in another. 20. Such is my conviction 
of duty in the case, that I cannot labor for the en- 
largement of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute if our 
brethren in Jesus Christ must be rejected because 
they differ from us in color. You know, dear breth- 
ren and sisters, that it would be hard for me to leave 
that institution, which I planted in much fasting and 
prayer and tribulation, sustained for a time by only 
one brother, and then for months by only two breth- 
ren, and for which I have prayed without ceasing, 
laboring night and day, and watering it with my 
sweat and my tears. You know it would be hard 
to part with my dear associates in these labors. 
And as I have you as a people in my heart to live 
and die with you, you know, beloved, that it would 
be heart-breaking to leave you for another field of 
labor ; but I have pondered the subject well, with 
prayer, and believe that if the injured brother of 
color, and consequently brothers Finney, Mahan, 
and Morgan, with eight professorships and ten thou- 
sand dollars, must be rejected, I must join them; 
because by so doing I can labor more effectually for 
a lost world and the glory of God — and believe me, 
dear brethren and sisters, for this reason only. 

" The agitation produced by my request, forwarded 
to the trustees some weeks since, was unexpected. 
I was sorry that it occurred, but happy that you 
fasted and prayed it down. I trust that season has 
prepared the minds of all who devoutly observed it 
for this communication, which I would have sup- 
pressed till my return had I not been under the 



62 OBERLIN. 

necessity of communicating the same to the trustees 
for immediate decision ; because our professors and 
funds are all suspended upon that decision, and 
myself also. May God of His infinite mercy grant 
that in this and all things right we may be ' perfectly 
joined together in one mind.' " 

The trustees and the colonists to whom these 
appeals of Mr. Shipherd were addressed, were earnest 
Christian men and women. All their instincts and 
convictions were opposed to slavery, but they had 
given little consideration to their own practical re- 
lations to the subject. Slavery they regarded as a 
great evil — a curse ; but the idea that they had any- 
thing to do about it, had not entered their minds. 
The question of slavery had been discussed the sum- 
mer previous in the " Oberlin Lyceum," which em- 
braced both students and colonists, when it appeared 
that the entire community, except Mr. Shipherd and 
two or three students, were " Colonizationists." The 
prevailing sentiment was that it would never do to 
"let the slaves loose among us" — that the free col- 
ored people should be " returned to Africa" as soon 
as possible, and the slaves gradually made free, and 
sent after them. The Oberlin covenant contained 
no allusion to slavery. These good people would 
not have hesitated a moment to go as missionaries 
to Africa, if such a duty had been made clear to 
them ; but all their social prepossessions, not to say 
prejudices, were against the idea of a mingling of 
the two races in society here. It required time and 
consideration to make the thought acceptable. Even 
Mr. Stewart, stern reformer that he was, trained in 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. 63 

missionary service among the Choctaws, ready for 
anything that came as duty, however great the sac- 
rifice required, was not prepared to take the step 
proposed by Mr. Shipherd, and, as a member of the 
Board of Trustees, cast his vote against it to the last. 
It was, however, simply a question of time with him. 
His mind naturally moved slowly, but at length he 
took his position with the foremost of the Abo- 
litionists. 

According to Mr. Shipherd's request, another 
meeting of the trustees was held at Oberlin, Feb. 9, 
at the house of Mr. Shipherd, which had been 
erected, the previous summer, on the north side of 
the College Square. Many of the good people had 
by this time become deeply interested in favor of 
the movement, and the results of this meeting were 
looked for with intense interest. Rev. John Keep, 
then of Ohio City [Cleveland, west side], was at 
the time president of the Board, having been elected 
the previous autumn, upon the resignation of Judge 
Brown. 

The trustees convened in the morning, nine mem- 
bers being present, and the discussion was warm and 
long. Mrs. Shipherd was occupied with her house- 
hold duties, but in her anxiety she often passed the 
door, which was ajar, and at length stood before it. 
Father Keep comprehended the case, and stepped 
out to inform her that the result of the deliberation 
was very doubtful. He greatly feared that the op- 
position would prevail. Mrs. Shipherd dropped her 
work at once, gathered her praying sisters in the 
neighborhood, and spent the time with them in 



64 OBERLIN. 

prayer until the decision was announced. When the 
question was finally taken, the division of the Board 
was equal, and Father Keep, as the presiding officer, 
gave the casting vote in favor of the admission of 
colored students. The resolution which at length 
passed was not simple and direct, like the one pro- 
posed originally by Mr. Shipherd, but it seems the 
expression of timid men who were afraid to say pre- 
cisely what they meant. It is as follows : 

Whereas, there does exist in our country an excitement in 
respect to our colored population, and fears are entertained that 
on the one hand they will be left unprovided for as to the means 
of a proper education, and on the other that they will in unsuit- 
able numbers be introduced into our schools, and thus in effect 
forced into the society of the whites, and the state of public senti- 
ment is such as to require from the Board some definite expression 
on the subject; therefore, resolved, that the education of the peo- 
ple of color is a matter of great interest, and should be encouraged 
and sustained in this institution. 

The logic of the resolution is not very luminous, 
nor is the conclusion entirely unambiguous, but the 
effect was decisive. It determined the policy of the 
institution on the question of slavery, and no other 
action has been needed on the subject from that day 
to this. It was a word of invitation and welcome to 
the colored man, as opposed to the spirit of exclu- 
sion which was then dominant in the land. That 
this decision was regarded as involving grave conse- 
quences, is manifest from the intense excitement 
which existed here at the time. There were no col- 
ored students at the door seeking admittance. In- 
deed there was but one colored person at the time 
resident in the county; but they were very generally 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. 65 

expected as the result of this decision ; and when 
at length a solitary colored man was seen entering 
the settlement, a little boy, the son of one of the 
trustees, ran to the house, calling out, " They're 
coming, father — they're coming !" 

At the same meeting of the trustees Rev. Charles 
G. Finney, of New York City, was appointed Pro- 
fessor of Theology. He was then pastor of the Con- 
gregational Church worshipping in the Chatham 
Street Chapel, formerly a theatre, and about to enter 
the Broadway Tabernacle, which was building for its 
reception. The Tappans and other prominent anti- 
slavery men were members of this church. They 
had already become interested in the antislavery 
movement in Lane Seminary, and were ready to 
respond to the proposal of Messrs. Shipherd and 
Mahan that Mr. Finney should become Professor of 
Theology at Oberlin, and thus a refuge should be 
afforded for the fugitives from Lane. 

Arthur Tappan himself pledged a contribution of 
ten thousand dollars to erect a building intended 
primarily for the Theological Department, and en- 
gaged to secure a loan of ten thousand more for 
other necessary buildings and improvements. Sev- 
eral other gentlemen united with the Tappans in 
what was called " The Oberlin Professorship Associ- 
ation," engaging to pay quarterly the interest on 
eighty thousand dollars, sufficient for the salaries of 
eight professors, at six hundred dollars each. It was 
intended finally to pay the principal, and thus se- 
cure the permanent endowment of the institution. 
This was in the beginning of 1835, when all business 



66 OBERLIN. 

operations seemed prosperous, and the gentlemen 
forming the association were abundantly able to do 
what they proposed. On this foundation, and on 
the ground of the antislavery attitude of the college 
as determined by the final action of the trustees, 
Messrs. Mahan, Finney, and Morgan accepted their 
appointments, and arranged to come to Oberlin. 
Professor Morgan, however, was invited to the 
Chair of New Testament Literature and Exegesis, 
instead of that of Mathematics and Natural Philoso- 
phy, as at first proposed. These men were then in 
the prime of their manhood — Professor Finney 
forty-two years of age, President Mahan thirty-five, 
and Professor Morgan thirty-two. Professor Finney 
was born in Connecticut, removed early to Central 
New York, was trained for the profession of law, 
and entered the ministry after brief study with his 
pastor, Rev. George W. Gale. President Mahan was 
born in Western New York, pursued study at Ham- 
ilton College to the end of the junior year, and 
took his theological course at Andover. Professor 
Morgan was brought to this country from Ireland, at 
the age of eleven, was brought up in Philadelphia and 
New York, prepared for college at Stockbridge, Mass., 
and graduated at Williams. His theological studies 
were pursued privately in New York. Thus Oberlin 
experienced a sudden enlargement and took a new 
departure. 

President Mahan came to Oberlin about the first 
of May, followed a month later by his family and a 
large number of the students from Lane. For the 
president's family, the first log house erected here 



/", §'-H 




THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. 6? 

was vacated and made ready, and this house they oc- 
cupied several months, until the " President's House," 
at the south-west corner of the square, could be built. 
For the students who came from Lane, special pro- 
vision was made. A building was extemporized, 
called " Cincinnati Hall." It was one story high, 
one hundred and forty-four feet long, and twenty- 
four feet wide. Its sides and partitions and ceilings 
and floors were of beech boards fresh from the mill. 
On the outside it was battened with " slabs" retain- 
ing the bark of the original tree, which gave the 
building a decidedly rustic aspect. One end of the 
" Hall " was fitted up as kitchen and dining-room, 
and the remainder was divided into rooms twelve 
feet square, with a single window to each, and a door 
opening out upon the forest. This structure was 
situated a little west of the site of the " Old Labora- 
tory," its west side corresponding with what is now 
the east side of Professor Street. This was then the 
border of the forest toward the west. Two students 
were assigned to each room. Oberlin strained a 
point to give the new-comers a reception and ac- 
commodations worthy of their fame. The enthusi- 
asm of the new enterprise lightened hardships and 
made the rough places smooth. All were satisfied. 
The number of students that came was about 
thirty — not all theological students. Several were 
from the literary course at Lane, in preparation for 
theology, and entered a similar course here. A few 
of those who had been most prominent in the move- 
ment at Lane, as Theodore D. Weld and Henry B. 
Stanton, did not come to Oberlin to remain, but 



68 OBERLIN'. 

were drawn at once into public antislavery labors in 
the country, and only dropped in at Oberlin from 
time to time as their work permitted. Among those 
who came and helped to make up a senior theologi- 
cal class were such men as Wm. T. Allan, of Hunts- 
ville, Ala.; John W. Alvord, more recently connected 
with the Freedman's Bureau ; George Clark, known 
in the country for many years as an evangelist; Se- 
reno W. Streeter, a well-known pastor in Ohio and 
Michigan ; James A. Thome, of Augusta, Ky., pro- 
fessor at Oberlin, and afterwards pastor in Cleveland ; 
George Whipple, twelve years professor at Oberlin, 
and for many years afterwards Secretary of the 
American Missionary Association ; and others, four- 
teen in all — such a class as any seminary might be 
proud of. 

The effect of this accession upon the institution 
and the place was, of course, decided and manifest. 
The school was at once transformed from a Collegi- 
ate Institute — as it had been modestly called — to a 
University, embracing the same departments as at 
present, with students in every stage of advance- 
ment. Hence the mistake has often been made 
abroad, of attributing the origin of Oberlin to the 
explosion at Lane Seminary. The Collegiate De- 
partment received considerable accessions, about the 
same time, from Western Reserve College, the trus- 
tees of which had been exercised, somewhat after the 
manner of the trustees of Lane, by the antislavery 
zeal of professors and students. Thus Oberlin in- 
curred odium, not only by its antislavery position, 
but by becoming an asylum for discontented stu- 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. 69 

dents. If these students had been such as could 
well be spared by the schools from which they came, 
the case would have been far different ; but the 
" glorious good fellows"of Lane, as Dr. Beecher called 
them, were well matched in the earnest and thorough- 
going young men from Hudson. 

In June Professors Finney and Morgan came, and 
soon entered upon their work. The buildings pro- 
vided for by the gift and loan of Arthur Tappan, 
were commenced and pushed rapidly forward. 
These were two dwelling-houses of brick, each two 
stories in height, one for President Mahan and the 
other for Professor Finney ; and Tappan Hall, a col- 
lege building of brick, four stories high, with four 
lecture rooms on the first floor, and dormitories 
above, intended first for the Theological Depart- 
ment, as far as required, and then for the general 
uses of the college. The colonists, though greatly 
pressed with the expense of building their own 
homes, and bringing their farms into cultivation, sub- 
scribed twenty-five hundred dollars to be applied in 
the erection of another college building, the lower 
story of which should be used jointly, by the college 
as a chapel, and by the church for its services. This 
subscription covered about half the cost of the build- 
ing, and was made with the provision that the use 
by the church should be temporary, and that the 
claim should finally be transferred to the college. 
This building was three stories in height, the second 
and third stories furnishing dormitories for young 
men. In consideration of the subscription by the 
people, the building was called Colonial Hall. The 



yo OBERLW. 

frame was erected and the building inclosed before 
winter. 

Meanwhile the congregation had outgrown the 
little chapel used the preceding year, and the dining- 
room of the new boarding-house, not yet occupied, 
was put in order every Saturday for the Sabbath 
services. In this room Mr. Finney did his first preach, 
ing in Oberlin, President Mahan usually taking the 
morning service, and Mr. Finney the afternoon. Both 
sermons were long — never less than an hour, often an 
hour and a half ; but the congregation never seemed 
weary, and probably no one in the entire community, 
at that time, ever willingly stayed away. It was 
such preaching as the young people who heard it 
could never forget. 

When Colonial Hall was erected and had received 
its roof and siding, loose boards were laid on the 
timbers and the service was held there, the whole 
interior being open to the roof, and the timbers of 
the successive stories being supported by studs, 
held in position simply by the pressure from above. 
At the first gathering in this building the service had 
just begun when the brick supports under the floor 
were crushed, and the props above, loosened by the 
sinking of the floor, fell one after another into the 
midst of the people. No one was injured, but there 
was considerable consternation, which Mr. Finney 
quieted by assuring the people that they could not 
possibly fall farther than the ground ; and that if 
sinners were not in danger of falling farther than 
the ground, he would never preach another sermon. 
He then went on with a pungent and powerful dis- 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. ?I 

course from the text, " He that turneth away his ear 
from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abom- 
ination." 

This rapid enlargement, involving the coming in 
of new men of commanding influence and new ideas, 
was not effected without some perturbations. With- 
in a week of the arrival of President Mahan, the in- 
formation was spread abroad, by some student who 
had " interviewed " him, that he was opposed to the 
study of the " heathen classics." He was at once 
invited by some committee to give a lecture upon 
the subject before the Oberlin Lyceum. Without 
due consideration, as he afterward used to admit, he 
consented, and stated freely and strongly, as was his 
wont, his views, not in opposition to the study of 
Latin and Greek, but of the classic authors com- 
monly used in the college course, and indeed in op- 
position to so large an expenditure of time upon 
these studies. He was one of the earliest advocates 
of "the new education." Mr. Waldo, who was Pro- 
fessor of Languages, and who until this time had been 
principal of the school, felt called upon to defend 
the regular course, and gave notice that the next 
day, at four o'clock in the afternoon, he would reply 
to the views of President Mahan. The discussion 
thus opened continued several days, engaging the 
attention of the entire community. One evening, 
after an argument by the president, a student, who 
had never taken kindly to linguistic studies, entered 
the room of a fellow-student with his Virgil in his 
hand, and challenged him to join him in burning 
the obnoxious books. The student thus challenged 



72 OBERLIN. 

took up an old volume of Virgil, careful to keep a 
better one safe, and together they went out in front 
of the building and lighted the leaves. A score or 
more of students dropped into the company, some 
of them bringing books to add to the illumination ; 
and for half an hour they tossed them through the 
air like fire-balls. Some of the young men perhaps 
regarded it as a serious business, but to the majority 
it was mere sport. The young men who burnt the 
books prepared their lessons in Virgil for the next 
day, as usual. The boyish freak was widely published 
through the country as " The burning of the Classics 
at Oberlin," and was accepted very generally, not 
unnaturally, as a declaration that such studies were 
to be repudiated. No such impression prevailed at 
Oberlin, and no such result followed. The course of 
study remained unchanged, essentially the accepted 
American college course. But the discussion and 
the result disturbed Mr. Waldo's mind. He appre- 
hended that he should not be able to realize at Ober- 
lin his views of education, and at the next meeting 
of the trustees he tendered his resignation. Rev. 
Henry Cowlcs, a native of Connecticut, and an hon- 
ored graduate of Yale, then pastor at Austinburg, 
was appointed to the vacancy, and entered upon the 
work in the autumn of this year. 

One result of the discussion upon classical study 
was to awaken a temporary interest in the study of 
the Hebrew language, which it was proposed to sub- 
stitute for a portion of the Latin of the course. To 
meet this demand, Prof. J. Seixas, a Jew, a teacher 
of Hebrew, from New York City, was employed the 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. 73 

latter half of the year, to give the students an intro- 
duction to this language. He was an enthusiastic 
and successful teacher, and stirred up such an inter- 
est that his classes numbered, at one time, a hundred 
and twenty-seven pupils. This interest soon sub- 
sided, and the study of Hebrew was begun, at first 
in the last term of the junior year, then in the first 
term of the senior year, and finally was limited to the 
theological course. 

The commencement this year was held in July, 
under the " Big Tent" which had been sent on from 
New York by Professor Finney's friends, to furnish 
him the means of holding protracted meetings 
through the region, in places where no suitable house 
for such meetings could be found. This tent was 
for some years a conspicuous feature of the Oberlin 
Commencement, and of other large gatherings. It 
was a circular tent, a hundred feet in diameter — suf- 
ficient when closely seated to shelter three thousand 
persons. Its first spreading on the college grounds 
was an occasion of much interest. It was on Satur- 
day afternoon, and the young men of the college all 
entered into the work. The work, after some mis- 
adjustments, was successfully accomplished, and the 
long blue streamer floated out on the breeze, bearing 
the millennial motto, in large white letters, " Holi- 
ness to the Lord." On Sabbath afternoon, at five 
o'clock, the people gathered in the tent for a dedica- 
tion service. Professor Finney was offering the ded- 
icatory prayer, and asking that the tent might serve 
the purposes intended, and might be protected from 
the winds of heaven, when a sudden gale struck the 



74 OBERLIN. 

canvas on the west side ; stakes yielded and chains 
broke, and the whole collapsed. The people were 
not seriously disturbed by the unpropitious omen. 
They strengthened the stakes and doubled the 
chains, and the Commencement was held in the 
tent. 

There was no class to graduate, as those from 
Lane who composed the senior theological class had 
determined, on account of interruption of their stu- 
dies, in changing from Lane to Oberlin, to take an 
additional year. The principal exercises were in- 
augural addresses from President Mahan and Profes- 
sors Fin'ney and Morgan. 

The Annual Catalogue for this year, 1835, pub- 
lished after Commencement, presents the institution 
as fully organized in all its departments, with a total 
attendance of two hundred and seventy-seven stu- 
dents, thirty-five in the theological classes, thirty-eight 
in the college classes, and two hundred and four pre- 
paratory students. These were from all parts of the 
Northern States, with a few from the South — young 
men and women of mature age and earnest charac- 
ter, a large majority professed Christians, prepar- 
ing for service in the different spheres of Christian 
labor. 

A single colored student, James Bradley, once a 
slave, had come from Cincinnati, following the stu- 
dents from Lane, with whom he had become ac- 
quainted. All the resistance to the reception of col- 
ored students, which had been exhibited less than a 
year before, had disappeared. All seemed to have 
forgotten that they could have cherished such feel- 




TENT. 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. ?$ 

ings, and the colored brother was made perfectly at 
home. 

A few weeks before the close of the fall term 
Theodore D. Weld came to the place, and gave a 
series of more than twenty lectures on slavery, its 
nature and relations and bearings, personal, social, 
political, and moral: lectures of marvellous power, all 
charged with facts, with logic, and with fervid elo- 
quence. To listen to such an exhibition of the sys- 
tem of slavery, was an experience to be remembered 
for a lifetime. It is doubtful whether any community 
was ever more profoundly moved by the eloquence 
of a single man. From first to last, through the even- 
ings of three full weeks, the whole body of citizens 
and students hung upon his lips. Studies naturally 
suffered some interruption, but the opportunity was 
itself an education. Oberlin was abolitionized in 
every thought and feeling and purpose, and has been 
working out those convictions during the fifty years 
that have since elapsed. 

During the following winter vacation a score or 
more of the students, equipped for the conflict by 
this course of training, went out as lecturers through 
Ohio and portions of Pennsylvania, under the aus- 
pices of the American Antislavery Society. Their 
experiences were sufficiently startling to meet all the 
requirements of an interesting campaign. They 
found bitter enemies and devoted friends, and en- 
countered mobs which were sometimes amusing and 
sometimes terrific; and thus the abolitionism was 
diffused. The Western Reserve became, under these 
and other influences, a stronghold of antislavery 



76 OBERLIN. 

sentiment and action ; and when at length the ques- 
tion of the relations of the government to slavery 
became the absorbing one in politics, the Western 
Reserve determined the position of the State of 
Ohio. 

There were, during this year, hundreds of appli- 
cants for admission to the school who could not be 
received. The difficulty was to provide rooms and 
facilities for manual labor to the many who came. 
The prospect seemed to be that the only limit to the 
influx of students would be the necessity of provid- 
ing for them room and work ; but it was found that 
the labor could not be made immediately produc- 
tive on the land not yet subdued, the roots of the 
original forest still alive in the ground. Hence dur- 
ing the winter the plan was matured of organizing 
subsidiary schools at convenient points, to provide 
for the overflow from Oberlin ; and with the open- 
ing of the spring, in 1836, such schools were opened : 
one at Sheffield, about fifteen miles from Oberlin, 
and another at Abbeyville, in Medina County. The 
Grand River Institute at Austinburg was estab- 
lished about this time, and received a colony from 
Oberlin, and another colony was sent to the Elyria 
High School, already in existence. The school at 
Sheffield was provided for by Mr. Robbins Burrell, 
who devoted his fine farm and house to the enter- 
prise, and took personal charge of its material and 
financial interests. The colonies sent to these 
schools were made up of volunteers. A popular 
teacher was selected, and his influence drew some, 
and these drew others. Lorenzo D. Butts, a Lane 



THE ACCESSION FROM LANE SEMINARY. 77 

Seminary student, was placed in charge at Sheffield, 
and Amos Dresser, another student from Lane, took 
charge at Abbeyville. The Grand River Institute 
became a permanency, because it had a field and 
constituency of its own. The schools at Sheffield 
and Abbeyville had scarcely more than a year of life ; 
the impulse that originated them was soon ex- 
hausted, and the pupils drifted back to the centre. 

A single church in Walton, N. Y., to provide for 
its young men who wished to come to Oberlin, built 
a hall of its own, called Walton Hall, on ground fur- 
nished by the college — a frame building of two sto- 
ries, with twelve rooms for two students each. 
Individual students put up houses of their own on 
grounds leased from the college, which they occu- 
pied in company with some of their fellow-students — 
a privilege limited to young men. From the begin- 
ning the principle was adopted that young women, 
not provided for in the Ladies' Hall, must find 
homes in responsible families. Now and then a stu- 
dent, of somewhat monastic tastes and simple habits, 
would construct for himself a cabin in the woods ; 
but this manner of life was never encouraged : the 
idea was inculcated that the culture arising from con- 
tact with fellow-students, in pleasant social relations, 
was an essential part of education. 

Thus Oberlin was first established and then en- 
larged, and the enlargement was so conspicuous a 
fact that it has sometimes been mistaken for its ori- 
gin. Professor Finney and the men from Lane 
joined a school already in existence, and numbering 
more than a hundred pupils. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE EARLY SPIRIT AND THOUGHT AND LIFE. 

The Oberlin enterprise, in its very conception, was 
active and aggressive ; it was the outgrowth of the 
great revival movement of 1830-31-32. It was no 
part of the plan of the founders to establish a com- 
munity which should live within itself and for itself; 
to separate a group of Christian families and a col- 
lection of young people from the rest of the world 
for the sake of realizing certain ideas of the Chris- 
tian life, with no thought beyond. The purpose was 
to concentrate Christian forces, and train Christian 
character, for effective operation upon the world with- 
out. To extend the influences of the Gospel through- 
out the " Mississippi Valley" was the constant idea 
in the minds of those who laid the foundations. 

The revivals of those early years were connected 
with the presentation of the New School theology. 
Personal responsibility and immediate duty, on the 
part of saints and sinners, was the watchword. The 
world was in darkness, and those who had the Gos- 
pel were under solemn and pressing obligation to 
send abroad the light. These were the original 
ideas in the minds of Messrs. Shipherd and Stewart, 
and the early families which gathered in the wilder- 
ness. These ideas were strengthened and intensified 



EARLY SPIRIT AND THOUGHT AND LIFE. 7Q 

by the accession of Mr. Finney and the men who 
came in connection with him in 1835. Mr. Finney 
had for years stood in the forefront of the great re- 
vival movement, and had but recently settled down 
in New York City as pastor of an aggressive, active 
church ; from this point as a centre he hoped to 
move upon the country at large. The New York 
Evangelist had published his revival lectures deliv- 
ered in this pulpit, and continued to publish his ser- 
mons ; the country at large had, in a sense, become 
his field of labor. When he came to Oberlin, it was 
not simply with the thought of settling down in 
quiet, to give a class of theological students his New 
School views and the benefits of his experience as 
an evangelist : this he intended to do ; but he hoped 
to find at Oberlin a new centre, from which he might 
operate more effectively upon the country and the 
world. The record of the action of the trustees in 
his appointment, discloses his purpose in this respect. 
It includes the following proviso : " Resolved, that 
with the view of the increased influence of Mr. Fin- 
ney in the church at large, he have liberty to be ab- 
sent four or five months of each year, when, on con- 
sulting with the Faculty, and with them making the 
arrangement so as to secure the best interests of the 
institution, he shall deem it to be his duty." 

The " Big Tent" was another indication of his 
thought and purpose. It was not possible that a 
man of such restless energy, with an apostle's bap- 
tism upon him, should have his influence circum- 
scribed by the woods that environed Oberlin ; and 
he was not alone. His associates were men of simi- 



80 OBERLINi 

lar purpose and power, acting under the same in- 
spiration. The colonists had joined the enterprise 
under a kind of missionary impulse, and the stu- 
dents were largely of the same spirit — young men 
and women of mature age and earnest character, 
expecting to find in the world some work to do. 

Such a concentration of power and purpose is 
rarely secured in any community ; and this power 
was not quiet and dormant : it was vitalized and 
energized by contact with the great questions and 
movements of the day. It was not primarily or 
chiefly an antislavery excitement that animated the 
community: it was a " zeal for the Lord," ready to 
move in any direction where a way should open, to 
benefit mankind and honor God. 

Such restless activity must find a field of action — 
objects upon which to expend itself; and upon the 
wise direction of this activity the question of a 
wholesome result must turn. A calm observer, con- 
templating the scene, would have been in doubt 
whether to expect a conflict of forces, divisive and 
self-destructive .; a union of force in some eccentric 
or extravagant form of action, involving a blind 
enthusiasm, or more likely a malignant fanaticism ; 
or a well-considered and well-regulated work, opera- 
ting beneficently at home and abroad. The first and 
the second were often predicted, often affirmed to 
exist ; the last was to a great extent realized. The 
zeal and impulse of some was happily balanced by 
the considerate conservatism of others, and all blen- 
ded in a movement essentially harmonious. No one 
ever attained to such authority in the community 



EARLY SPIRIT AND THOUGHT AND LIFE. 8 1 

that his opinion was accepted as conclusive ; all 
opinions were freely discussed, and accepted or dis- 
carded acccording to the apparent reason of the 
case. The range of investigation was very broad, 
embracing questions practical and abstract. Dietetics 
and the foundation of moral obligation were discussed 
with equal interest ; and every conclusion capable of 
application in practical form was brought to the test 
of experiment. 

For a time many of these discussions gathered 
about the Oberlin Covenant. That document was 
supposed to contain principles by which the Christian 
life should be ordered ; but when it was brought to 
bear in a practical case, it was found quite as diffi- 
cult to determine what the covenant prescribed, as to 
settle the question on independent grounds. This 
was no valid objection to the covenant ; nothing 
more could properly be asked of it ; but it proved 
less useful in the adjustment of practical questions 
than some had hoped. Such general terms as " econo- 
my and Christian self-denial," " necessary personal 
and family expenses," " plain and wholesome food," 
"expensive and unwholesome fashions of dress," 
"plainness and durability in the construction of 
houses, furniture, carriages, and all that appertains 
to us," were found to be just as broad as the Scripture 
injunction, " Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or 
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." The 
whole ground of Christian life and duty was trav- 
ersed, and all questions were vigorously discussed ; 
but the community settled down upon the catholic 
basis, of leaving to each one's personal judgment 



82 BERLIN, 

and conscience the determination of his own con- 
duct. The Oberlin Covenant thus became a general 
confession of the obligations of the Christian life. 
More than this would have proved a hindrance in- 
stead of a help. But such an interpretation of the 
covenant did not set aside investigation and discuss- 
ion. The Oberlin enterprise was undertaken as a 
new departure, and all the questions of life and god- 
liness invited to a reconsideration. One of the first 
questions before the community pertained to eating 
and drinking. The covenant was measurably specific 
as to the use of strong drink and tobacco, and these 
indulgences were generally discarded. The use of 
tea and coffee was regarded as questionable, under 
the covenant ; but how far it was " practicable" to 
dispense with them, was never perfectly ascertained. 
Simplicity of diet was at the beginning maintained 
on the ground of economy. The aim of the school 
was to bring; a liberal education within the reach of 
all; and Mr. Stewart, the first manager of the college 
boarding hall, had very positive ideas on the subject 
of table economy. To diminish the cost of living 
without detriment to health or vigor was his constant 
aim. Mr. Finney brought with him from New York 
ideas on diet which had been set forth by Dr. Mussey 
of Dartmouth, Dr. Hitchcock of Amherst, and such 
popular writers as Graham and Alcott. These 
views were based on the question of health, and in 
general involved the disuse of animal food. The 
dietetic reform at Oberlin was thus placed on the 
double foundation of economy and health, and was 
sustained by impulses from without as well as with- 



EARLY SPIRIT AND THOUGHT AND LIFE. 83 

in. Students at Amherst, under the lead of Dr. 
Hitchcock, were weighing out their fourteen ounces 
of food a day, while students at Oberlin were ex- 
perimenting on Graham bread and crust coffee. 
Both experiments were short-lived, but that at Am. 
herst soon passed out of thought, while that at 
Oberlin was accepted as characteristic, and became 
historical. The facts were that after two years Mr # 
Stewart left the boarding hall, and a steward was 
called from Boston, who held radical views on the 
subject of a vegetarian diet ; and for two or three 
years longer the students were furnished at the 
Hall with " Graham" fare. They were not restricted 
to this. A table was still set for those who preferred 
a different diet ; and there was never any constraint 
or compulsion in the case. Tea and coffee were not 
introduced into the college boarding hall until 1842 
— possibly a little later. 

The dietetic experiment in the community, or 
colony, as it was called, was similar to that in the 
college. Many of the families discarded tea and 
coffee, and a few adopted the vegetarian diet ; but 
as the years passed on, these peculiarities disappeared, 
and the present generation know of them only as 
traditions of the early days. The dietetic experi- 
ment was attended with vigorous discussion, and the 
dogmas of vegetarianism were often publicly contro- 
verted as well as supported ; and a final blow was 
given to the extreme vegetarian views, as presented 
by Sylvester Graham, by two young men, T. B. 
Hudson and S. D. Cochran, in a public discussion 
before the " Society of Inquiry." 



84 oberlin: 

Abstract and philosophical questions were inves- 
tigated with no less interest. In the year 1839 tne 
foundation of moral obligation was discussed in the 
college chapel, by President Mahan and Prof. J. P. 
Cowles of the Theological Department, now of Ips- 
wich, Mass. Professor Finney presided, and a large 
audience of students and citizens was in attendance. 
President Mahan maintained the popular view, of an 
intuitive principle of right as ultimate in thought, out 
of which all obligation springs, and to which all ques- 
tions of duty must be finally referred — the rational 
faculty determining, more or less distinctly and di- 
rectly, the Tightness or wrongness of every action. 
Professor Cowles had been educated at New Haven, 
and held the modified Paleyan view as presented by 
Dr. Taylor. The discussion was earnest and vigor- 
ous, occupying two or three hours each day, and ad- 
journed from day to day through the week. As is 
usual in such discussions, neither of the disputants 
was able to convince the other of his error ; but Pro- 
fessor Finney, who occupied the chair, and who had 
not distinctly formulated his theory of obligation, was 
able to combine the strong points of both theories, 
and at the close of the discussion set forth his view, 
afterwards elaborated in his work on Systematic 
Theology as the " Benevolence theory." From Pro- 
fessor Cowles he accepted the idea of happiness, 
well-being, as the ultimate good, and from President 
Mahan the fact that obligation is intuitively or 
rationally seen and affirmed ; but this obligation is 
only seen or affirmed in the presence of the good, 
and rests on the perceived value of happiness, or uU 



EARLY SPIRIT AND THOUGHT AND LIFE. 85 

timate good, as its ground. This was the genesis of 
the Oberlin philosophy of obligation, the resultant 
of the utilitarian scheme, and the theory of ulti- 
mate, abstract right. It may not differ in any 
essential feature from the view of Edwards and 
Samuel Hopkins ; but so far as Mr. Finney was con- 
cerned, it was undoubtedly an original and inde- 
pendent investigation. 

The pronounced antislavery position of Oberlin 
naturally brought here, from time to time, the 
prominent apostles of Abolitionism, both such as 
were in full harmony with the conservative politi- 
cal and ecclesiastical attitude of the people here, and 
such as seemed to themselves to have reached a bet- 
ter and more advanced position. Wm. Lloyd Gar- 
rison and Frederick Douglass came, at one time, to 
convince us that the proper antislavery position in- 
volved a withdrawal from all political action ; that 
the Constitution of the United States was pro-slav- 
ery and corrupt, and all who voted under it shared 
in its wickedness, and that those only were bearing 
a proper testimony against slavery who came out 
from all political organizations, and refused to take 
any part in the affairs of government. President 
Mahan, as usual, led the discussion on the Oberlin 
side, sustained by Professor T. B. Hudson, and per- 
haps some others. The result was that Oberlin 
people continued to vote, Mr. Garrison went on his 
way, and Mr. Douglass, then or soon after, joined 
the voting abolitionists. 

Stephen Foster and his wife, Abby Kelly Foster, 
came to Oberlin on a similar errand of " come-outer- 



86 OBERLIN. 

ism," to persuade the people that they were com- 
promising their antislavery position, weakening 
their testimony, and sharing in the guilt of slavery, 
by maintaining any correspondence or fellowship 
with the churches of the land. The continuous 
chain of fellowship united the church at Oberlin 
with the slaveholding churches of the South, and, 
no matter by how many links, ten or ten thousand, 
bound all together in one " covenant of hell." The 
doctrine was not an abstract one in its bearings. It 
was dividing the churches of the land and alienating 
Christian men from each other. They were invited 
to present their views before the people in the col- 
lege chapel, but, as usual, with the provision that 
half the time should be given to a presentation of 
the other side. The evenings of a full week were 
given to the discussion, with President Mahan in 
the forefront of the battle. The atmosphere waxed 
hot and lurid with the fire and smoke of the conflict, 
but the sky soon cleared, and the church arrange- 
ments continued undisturbed. 

Rev. Charles Fitch, of Newark, N. J., came to 
preach the doctrine of the immediate second coming 
of Christ. He was a man of much personal mag- 
netism, intensely in earnest, profoundly convinced 
of the truth of his message, and called, as he felt, to 
bring the better light to the good people of Oberlin. 
He was welcomed to the chapel, with the inevitable 
condition of an open and free discussion. He had 
half the time, and President Mahan and Professors 
Morgan and Henry Cowles reviewed his Scripture 
interpretations, his logic, and his rhetoric. The work 



EARLY SPIRIT AND THOUGHT AND LIFE. 87 

was done so thoroughly that it sufficed for a genera- 
tion. The people lived quietly through 1843, an d 
all the other periods subsequently designated by the 
Adventists. 

Every such question was hospitably entertained, 
but was required to give a reason for its claim to at- 
tention. The people had broken away from many 
old ideas, and there was no such presumption 
against a new doctrine that they could set it aside 
without examination. This temper of mind exposed 
them to the approach of every would-be reformer 
who had some new theory or scheme of life to prop- 
agate. He expected sympathy at Oberlin, if no- 
where else ; and constant vigilance was the price of 
security from imposition. 

But the Oberlin idea was first Christian and evan- 
gelical, and afterwards reformatory. It was not to 
realize some special fancy, or to accomplish some 
particular outward change, that the people came and 
planted their institutions in the wilderness. Their 
aims were as broad as the Gospel itself, and all pro- 
posed reforms were at once tested by their bearing 
upon the general Christian life and work. The pre- 
dominance of this idea saved them from any wild 
fanaticism. An intelligent Christian earnestness 
is the best security against the extravagances of 
social reform. 

The situation at Oberlin was remarkably favor- 
able to earnestness and unity of action, in every line 
of duty and of thought. There was but a single 
congregation, composed of citizens and students, 
during the first twenty years and more ; and. of this 



S5 OBERLIN. 

congregation Mr. Finney was the pastor, preaching 
once every Sabbath and often twice. In the early 
days, Mr. Mahan was accustomed to preach in the 
morning and Mr. Finney in the afternoon. Mr. Ma- 
han was a preacher of no ordinary power. 

It was natural that with such a concentration of re- 
ligious forces here, with a predisposition on the part 
of the people to religious activity and inquiry, the 
religious life should have been always earnest and 
often intense. With a powerful sermon from Presi- 
dent Mahan or Professor Morgan in the morning, not 
less than an hour, and an hour and a half of Mr. Fin- 
ney's fervid eloquence in the afternoon, the Sabbath 
was an occasion of strong impressions and "great 
searchings of heart." Mr. Finney never preached but 
with a definite aim and a purpose of immediate re- 
sults. There were times when his object was to pre- 
sent some doctrine or truth as a part of the gospel 
system ; but in the presentation he addressed himself 
to the audience before him with the intention of 
securing their acceptance of the doctrine. Oftener 
his aim was to stir up Christians to greater effort and 
fidelity, or to move the thoughtless and the- worldly 
to undertake a life of duty and religion. If there 
was evidence of a solemn and profound impression 
upon the audience, he was accustomed to call for an 
open decision, on the part of those whom he particu- 
larly addressed, at times asking them to rise in their 
places in testimony of their purpose, or at other 
times to come forward to seats that were vacated for 
their occupancy. Sometimes a hundred, and even 
hundreds, responded to his appeal, coming forward 



EARLY SPIRIT AND THOUGHT AND LIFE. 89 

and kneeling while he in prayer besought for them 
light and strength. 

Such Sabbaths extended their influence to the 
daily thought and life, and induced a general relig- 
ious activity rarely found. All the duties and pos- 
sibilities of the Christian life were thoroughly con- 
sidered, and outward and inward activity greatly 
stimulated. It was under such a pressure that the 
inquiry arose, as to the possibility of a life of full 
obedience or entire consecration to the will of God. 
The duty of such a life was granted by all, and the 
absolute possibility of it was involved in the New 
School theology, which maintained that ability was 
the condition of obligation. 

The first attempt at a practical application of this 
principle to the Christian life was made by a few 
young men in the summer of 1836. They had formed 
a missionary circle, and held a weekly prayer-meet- 
ing to secure a better preparation for their chosen 
work. In conference upon the consecration needed 
and required, they were led, one after another, to 
promise the Lord, in prayer, not to grieve Him any 
more by sin; and they left the meeting with the feel- 
ing that they were pledged to a life of entire obedi- 
ence to God, assuming that the Lord would afford 
deliverance in every time of need. It was a contem- 
plation of a life of entire obedience, chiefly from the 
side of duty — the obligation and the possibility of it. 
The step which these young men supposed they had 
taken, attracted some attention in the community, 
and was met with disapprobation. Mr. Finney him- 
self announced in a sermon that he would creep a 



go OBERLIN. 

hundred miles upon his hands and knees, to see a man 
who was living without sin. The young men went 
quietly on their way, making no profession, in public 
or private, as to their success in the life they had 
undertaken. 

The same season a few numbers of The Perfection- 
ist, published in New Haven, were circulated in the 
community, and while the doctrine they inculcated 
was in general disapproved, they seemed to stimu- 
late inquiry. In the autumn of the same year, the 
entire community of citizens and students was pro- 
foundly moved in a religious quickening, and the 
chief burden of thought and of prayer was, a higher 
spiritual life, a more full consecration on the part of 
Christians. At one of the daily meetings a student 
arose and asked what Divine help he might expect, in 
his effort to live the Christian life. Did the Gospel 
contain provisions and promises, of which he might 
avail himself, sufficient to secure him from sin and 
enable him to stand under all temptations? Presi- 
dent Mahan at once answered yes, and his answer 
served to fasten his own thought upon the subject, 
until he seemed to enter upon a new experience and 
a higher life. According to his own expression of 
it, it was coming out of darkness into light. Others 
were similarly wrought upon, and new experiences 
were received, until the idea became prevalent that 
there was a somewhat definite experience, open to 
all Christians, by which they could rise to a higher 
plane of living, and maintain unbroken communion 
with the Saviour. This experience was variously 
named " the blessing," " sanctifkation," " perfect 



EARLY SPIRIT AND THOUGHT AND LIFE, gi 

love," " Christian perfection." The theory of the 
experience, so far as a theory was presented, was 
that it was a passing from a state of imperfect obe- 
dience to perfect obedience — perfect, not in the 
sense of freedom from mistakes and involuntary im- 
perfections, but in freedom from voluntary failures, 
positive and present sin — a passing from partial to 
entire consecration. 

The view was essentially that of the Wesleyan ex- 
perience of perfect love, and biographies of Wesley- 
ans were eagerly sought for, in which these experi- 
ences were portrayed, as of the Wesleys, Fletcher, 
Carvosso, Hester Ann Rogers, as well as the experi- 
ences of President and Mrs. Edwards and J. B. Tay- 
lor. Mr. Finney was about leaving for his winter in 
New York, but these new ideas went with him, and 
gave tone to his experience and his preaching there. 
Mr. Mahan's preaching was in the direction of this 
experience, and many were greatly moved by it. 

The question of sanctification in the present life 
became very prominent, and the possibility of it was 
generally accepted. Those who entered into the 
special experience involved were comparatively few. 
Many others sought the experience, with more or less 
earnestness and anxiety. But the prevailing opinion 
probably was, that while the experience was genuine 
and valuable, it was not to be attained at will ; and 
that true Christian wisdom dictated a life of fidelity 
and duty, and the acceptance of whatever experience 
should fall to one's lot. This certainly was true, 
that those who in the earlier part of the movement 
came into this special experience were often greatly 



£2 OBERLIN. 

and permanently quickened in their spiritual life, and 
acquired an energy and efficiency as Christian work- 
ers which had never before characterized them. To 
numbers of them it proved a life-long elevation of 
soul, a vision of spiritual realities that sustained 
them many a year. There was, on the part of these 
persons in general, no profession of sinlessness ; but 
a humble acknowledgment of God's faithfulness to 
His promises, a constant joy in the Saviour as a pres- 
ent help in every time of need. It was inevitable 
that in such a movement there would be superficial 
imitations of the genuine experience — mere excite- 
ment of feeling, with no permanent result in charac- 
ter or life. Such cases must occur in all earnest and 
effective movements. There is the substance and 
the shadow, and the shadow is often the more showy. 
As months and years passed on, the first impulse 
of the movement seemed in a measure to exhaust 
itself, and experiences became less intense. There 
was time, too, to examine more carefully the doctrinal 
force and relations of the experience itself ; espec- 
ially the idea that the ordinary Christian experience 
involved only a partial consecration, which in the 
higher experience, became entire consecration. This 
view was soon found to be unscriptural and unphilo- 
sophical. No partial consecration could be in any 
sense acceptable to God ; nor indeed could such a 
partial consecration exist. The idea of the neces- 
sary simplicity of moral action became developed 
in the Oberlin theology, and the doctrine of sancti- 
fication was brought into harmony with this princi- 
ple. It was found that the very beginning of the 



EARLY SPIRIT AND THOUGHT AND LIFE. 93 

Christian life involved entire consecration, and that 
the difference, in moral attitude, between the mature 
and the immature Christian, is in the continuity or per- 
manency of obedience, and not in the heartiness or 
genuineness of obedience while it exists. This view of 
the case made no provision for the Christian passing 
from an unsanctified to a sanctified state, by a single 
act of faith, or by any special experience. All ex- 
perience in the Christian life must tend to greater 
stability, but there is no clear dividing line between 
sanctified and unsanctified Christians ; and there can 
be no experience which should be called sanctifica- 
tion, as distinguished from other experiences which 
precede or follow. Conversion is .a turning from sin 
to holiness, and the subsequent work of the Chris- 
tian is, to resist temptation, to return to obedience 
when he has fallen, and to become established in 
righteousness. 

This view of Christian character was generally ac- 
cepted by the leaders of thought at Oberlin, practi- 
cally if not theoretically ; and the doctrine of sancti- 
fication by special experience, gradually gave place 
to a presentation of the baptism of the Spirit as a 
condition of a more efficient and permanent Chris- 
tian life. 

At the height of the interest in these questions of 
Christian duty and the Christian life, near the close 
of 1838, The Oberlin Evangelist was established as an 
organ of communication with the Christian world, 
and soon attained a circulation of five thousand 
copies. It was a semi-monthly paper of eight quarto 
pages. The principal contributors to it were Profes- 



94 OBERLIN. 

sors Finney and Cowles, President Mahan and Pro- 
fessors Morgan and Thome. An office editor was 
employed, who received compensation. The labor 
of the other writers was entirely gratuitous, and 
whatever income there might be, was devoted to the 
educational work at Oberlin, chiefly in aid of young 
men preparing for the ministry. The publication of 
The Evangelist was continued twenty -four years, 
until, during the war, it failed for want of support. 
Almost every number contained a sermon of Mr. 
Finney, reported for the paper, often a letter from 
him, and various other communications upon doc- 
trine and duty. The whole series of twenty-four 
volumes embodies a large amount of valuable Chris- 
tian literature, and in its day the paper commanded 
a wide influence. 

In 1845 tne Oberlin Quarterly Review was estab- 
lished, with President Mahan and Professor Wm. 
Cochran, and afterward Professor Finney, as editors. 
The leading aim of the Quarterly was the more ex- 
tended and thorough discussion of these questions 
of doctrine and duty, and of others which occupied 
public attention. It was issued only four years, and 
never secured an adequate support. 

In such activities of thought and life, the commu- 
nity and the college were constantly exercised and 
trained. The regular work of the college was car- 
ried forward without material interruption, and the 
colonists pushed forward the improvement of their 
lands and the various enterprises of the community. 
There were periods, oftener near the close of the 
year before the winter vacation, when the religious 



EARLY SPIRIT AND THOUGHT AND LIFE. 95 

interest became deepened and intensified in connec- 
tion with the Sabbath services, and almost sponta- 
neously the people would gather upon the following 
day ; and thus the meetings would be continued from 
day to day, for a week or two, or even three, with a 
suspension of the ordinary work of the college, and 
of the community. On one such occasion there was 
a beginning of some complaint on the part of a few 
students not in sympathy with the general feeling, 
that they were here to study, and not to attend 
meetings — that they were here on expense, and it was 
not reasonable that their work should be interrupted. 
The complaint would seem to have some foundation ; 
but Mr. Finney met it in a discourse in which he 
told them that the first thing they needed was to be- 
come reconciled to God ; that neither study nor any- 
thing else was of any account to them until this 
great question of life and duty was settled ; that 
Oberlin was founded by the servants of God for the 
promotion of His cause in the world, to prepare 
teachers and preachers for His service ; that the funds 
by which the college was sustained were given by 
Christian men for this purpose, and they had no right 
to avail themselves of these opportunities to prepare 
themselves for their own selfish and worldly schemes. 
He besought them to give their hearts to God, and 
no longer abuse His forbearance or the privileges 
afforded them by His people. The appeal was over- 
whelming, and silenced if it did not satisfy. 

With all this intensity of the religious life, the 
prevalent piety of the place was never ascetic, never 
noisy or demonstrative. A general cheerfulness per- 



96 OBERLIN. 

vaded the community ; and the broad culture which 
was encouraged and maintained, and the varied in- 
terests and occupations which engaged the attention 
of citizens and students, were incompatible with any 
narrow or extreme type of religious manifestation. 
There were, of course, instances of a self-centred and 
introspective pietism, but in general the spirit of the 
place was active, aggressive, practical, bringing every- 
thing to the test of reason, and experience and the 
Scriptures. Mr. Shipherd's idea of an isolated 
Christian community, by its very position sheltered 
from the influences of the world, was scarcely real- 
ized. Hundreds of young people from every part 
of the land were continually drawn in, and were 
again sent forth to find their place and their work 
in the world. The connections were too vital and 
wide-spread to permit the development of any very 
peculiar life. 



CHAPTER V. 

RELATIONS AND EXPERIENCES, ECCLESIASTICAL AND 
POLITICAL. 

The families first gathered at Oberlin were of the 
New England training and culture, and were thus 
inclined to the Congregational order in church ar- 
rangements. This was true also of Messrs. Ship- 
herd and Stewart, the original founders. But all 
New England ministers, coming to the West in those 
days, connected themselves with the Presbytery 
under the " Plan of Union;" and all the churches or- 
ganized among the New England emigrants of the 
Western Reserve, while Congregational in their inter- 
nal constitution, maintained their outward fellowship 
through connection with Presbytery. Messrs. Ma- 
han, Finney, and Morgan were Presbyterian in their 
church connections before coming to Oberlin, and 
had no special leaning to the Congregational order. 
The two brothers, Henry and John P. Cowles, were 
original Congregationalists, but Henry had been some 
years a pastor in Ohio, and was connected, as usual, 
with Presbytery. Nothing was farther from the 
thoughts of the founders than the idea of a new de- 
parture in ecclesiastical matters, or any action not 
in harmony with the established order and arrange- 
ments of the churches of the region. 

The organization of the Oberlin church was begun 



98 OBERLIN. 

on the 3d of September, 1834, nearly a year and a half 
after the first colonists came upon the ground. The 
ministers present at the organization were John J. 
Shipherd ; Seth H. Waldo, principal of the school ; 
John Keyes, pastor of the church at Dover; J. H. 
Eells, pastor at Elyria ; and Oliver Eastman, of Ober- 
lin. The people assembled in the little school chapel, 
the only gathering place, at half-past ten in the 
morning, and listened to a sermon from the young 
Elyria pastor. In the afternoon sixty-one persons 
came forward with letters and credentials, and were 
approved as members. The completion of the or- 
ganization was accomplished on the 13th of Septem- 
ber, when those who had been approved " Resolved 
that those who are examined and accepted do now 
consider themselves as members, and that the church 
is legally and completely organized." At a prelimi- 
nary meeting it had been voted that the name of 
the church should be " The Congregational Church 
of Christ at Oberlin." 

The first act of the church after the vote of or- 
ganization was to pass the following resolution : 
" Resolved, that this church apply to the Presbytery 
of Cleveland for admittance and membership, and 
that Bro. J. J. Shipherd represent this church in 
Presbytery, and that Bro. P. P. Pease accompany him 
as a delegate." A confession of faith had been 
adopted at the preliminary meeting, orthodox in the 
New England Calvinistic sense, setting forth the doc- 
trines of God's existence and attributes, the Divine 
authority of the Scriptures, the Trinity, Divine Sov- 
ereignty, the Fall, Total Depravity, Atonement, Re- 



ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONS. 99 

generation by the Holy Spirit, Election, Perseverance, 
and Free Agency. A missing leaf of the record has 
taken away the articles on the Ordinances of the 
Church, the Resurrection, and the Future Life, which 
undoubtedly belonged to the confession. 

The church at once gave a unanimous call to Mr. 
Shipherd to become their pastor. After some delay, 
on account of pressing duties connected with the 
establishment of the college and the oversight of its 
interests, he accepted the charge, and, with some 
interruption from ill-health and his other duties, he 
held the position until June, 1836. He then tendered 
his resignation, giving as his reasons his poor health, 
which disqualified him for the work, and the fact 
that the Lord was calling him to the establishment 
of other schools which, like Oberlin, should aid in 
supplying laborers for the great field. This resigna- 
tion was accepted, and Mr. Finney was called to take 
" temporary charge" of the church. The relation- 
ship was at length made permanent, and Mr. Finney 
continued pastor of the church, in connection with 
his professorship in the seminary, until 1872. Much 
of this time Professor Morgan was associated with 
him as his assistant. 

In August of this year, 1836, the church appointed 
a delegation to meet with the representatives of 
other churches at Hudson, for the purpose of organ- 
izing a Congregational Association for the Western 
Reserve. The organization was consummated at 
an adjourned meeting held at Oberlin the following 
month, when there were present nine ministers 
and thirty-four lay delegates representing twenty 



ICO OBERLIN. 

churches. The Oberlin church at this time with- 
drew from the Presbytery, and became connected 
with the W. R. Association. Only two Oberlin 
ministers took part in forming the Asssociation — 
President Mahan and Professor Jno. P. Cowles. 
Others preferred to hold back with the purpose of 
still maintaining fraternal relations with their Pres- 
byterian brethren. Professor Henry Cowles joined 
the Association six years later, and Professors Finney 
and Morgan eight years. 

There is no record of the motive of the church in 
this movement of separation from the Presbytery. 
Those who united in forming the Association put 
on record their purpose in the organization as fol- 
lows : 

i. "That this Association has originated in an 
honest attachment to the principles of Congregation- 
alism ; in a wish to carry out our Saviour's laws of 
Christian union ; and in a regard for the welfare of 
many churches, both on the Reserve and in the 
region south of us, that have not been connected 
with any ecclesiastical body, and have been waiting 
for and desiring an organization of this sort." 

2. "This Association entertain a high regard for 
the Presbyterian ministers and churches on the Re- 
serve, and would most cordially cherish their Chris- 
tian fellowship ; and our movement in forming our- 
selves into a distinct organization has not originated 
in any lack of confidence in those brethren, nor in 
any wish to be dissociated from their communion." 

Some months before this change of ecclesiastical 
relations the church had appointed a committee to 



ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONS. 101 

revise the " articles of faith:" apparently not be- 
cause of any change of theological opinion, or any 
serious dissent from the confession as it stood ; but 
there was in the church a growing sense of the im- 
portance of such an organization of the church that 
no Christian should be necessarily excluded from it. 
For a long time, apparently, no other church would 
be required on account of numbers, and it did not 
seem desirable that any subordinate difference of 
views should make another church necessary. The 
aim in the revision, therefore, was to secure a creed 
which should commend itself to all evangelical Chris- 
tians. As the result of the deliberation the following 
articles were adopted, and have ever since stood as 
the confession of the church : 

1. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testaments are given by inspiration of 
God, and are the only infallible rule of faith and 
practice. 

2. We believe in one God, the Creator and Ruler 
of the Universe, existing in a Divine and incompre- 
hensible Trinity, the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, 
and the Holy Ghost, each possessing all Divine per- 
fections. 

3. We believe in the fall of our first parents, and 
the consequent entire apostasy, depravity, and lost 
condition of the human race. 

4. We believe in the incarnation, death, and atone- 
ment of the Son of God ; and that salvation is at- 
tained only through repentance and faith in His 
blood. 

5. We believe in the necessity of a radical change 



102 BERLIN. 

of heart, and that this is effected through the truth 
by the agency of the Holy Ghost. 

6. We believe that the moral law is binding on all 
mankind as the rule of life, and that obedience to it 
is the proper evidence of a saving change. 

7. We believe that credible evidence of a change 
of heart is an indispensable ground of admission to 
the privileges of the visible Church. 

8. We believe that the ordinances of Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper, together with the Christian Sab- 
bath, are of perpetual obligation in the church. 

9. We believe in a future judgment, the endless 
happiness of the righteous, and the endless misery of 
the wicked. 

There is testimony that the words " the resur- 
rection of the dead" were omitted from the last 
article by a clerical error in entering it upon the 
record ; but the article stands as it was recorded. 
For many years care was taken by the pastors, at 
every public reading of the Confession, to announce 
that it did not contain all that the church believed, 
but what was regarded as necessary to membership. 

For twenty years and more this was the only 
church in Oberlin. At one time a Methodist class 
existed here, but there seemed to be no call from 
within the community itself for another church, un- 
til the members had so increased as to make the 
church unwieldy. Doubtless Mr. Finney's powerful 
ministry had much to do with this persistent unity. 
The church increased in numbers with the growth 
of the town and the college until it numbered prob- 
ably twelve hundred resident members. 



ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONS. IC>3 

The first place of worship was the small upper 
room in Oberlin Hall, the first college building. In 
1835 it became impossible to crowd the people into 
it, and Sabbath services were held in the new col- 
lege boarding-hall, still in an unfinished state ; and 
after it was completed the dining-hall was occupied 
as a place of meeting. The same year the " colony" 
united with the college in the building of Colonial 
Hall, with the arrangement that the first story 
should be finished as an audience -room, and be 
used as a college chapel, and audience-room for the 
church. This was completed in the spring of 1836, 
and furnished, closely packed, eight hundred sit- 
tings. For several years this provision was ade- 
quate to the demand ; but at length the place be- 
came too strait, and in 1840-41, during the pleas- 
ant part of the year, a subsidiary service was held 
on Sunday in one of the lecture-rooms of the col- 
lege — generally the laboratory or the music-hall. In 
the summers, of 1841 and 1842 the " Big Tent" was 
spread, on the north-east corner of the square, every 
Saturday afternoon, for the Sunday service. The 
labor involved was considerable, and the comfort of 
the place depended upon the weather. After much 
deliberation the church resolved to build a house, 
larger than the usual congregation required, suffi- 
cient to meet the necessities of commencement oc- 
casions. The walls were erected, and the building 
was inclosed in 1842, and the commencement was 
held in it, still unfinished, in 1843. The building 
was a great undertaking for the community at that 
time. The expense of building their homes and 



104 OBERLlrf. 

bringing their farms under cultivation still bore upon 
them, and no returns had as yet been received be- 
yond the absolutely necessary cost of living. The 
professors were all in straitened circumstances, de- 
pending on precarious salaries. The students, with 
rare exceptions, were self-supporting. But the peo- 
ple had a mind to the work, and with a little aid 
from friends abroad, who were interested to help the 
college to a suitable place for the gatherings at 
commencement, the required amount, $12,000, was 
raised. At the time it was built it was as desirable 
an audience-room as any in the West, and it is diffi- 
cult now to find a better. It furnishes permanent 
sittings for sixteen hundred persons, and can be 
made to accommodate five hundred more. It was 
thought to be larger than the ordinary uses of the 
church required, but this impression was soon done 
away. It was never too large. The house failed to 
receive a definite and formal dedication. It was 
occupied by the church at various times during the 
progress of the work, and as one part after another 
was completed, it was recognized with thanksgiving 
on the following Sabbath. Thus the work and the 
dedication went on together; and when the house 
was completed the people found themselves already 
domesticated there. 

This was the church home for the Oberlin people 
as a whole for many years. No college church has 
ever been organized at Oberlin. It has been thought 
that it was better for all concerned that students 
and citizens should be associated in church rela- 
tions; that with this arrangement they would better 




FIRST CHURCH. 



ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONS. IO^ 

Understand and appreciate each other, and the dan- 
ger of hostile feeling between the college and the 
town would be avoided ; that a more wholesome 
religious culture would thus be secured to the stu- 
dents, and a general interest in the progress of re- 
ligion in the world be better maintained among 
them. The result has seemed to justify the plan. 

There was naturally among the people at Oberlin 
a somewhat settled repugnance to the establishment 
of other churches here. This repugnance did not 
have its seat in denominationalism, for this was com- 
paratively weak among the people ; but rather in the 
feeling or conviction that church unity was impor- 
tant to the prosperity of the enterprise. There was 
more or less anxiety among the different denomina- 
tions round about that this vacant territory should 
be occupied. A town of two or three thousand peo- 
ple, with only a single church, was in some quarters 
regarded as proof of a destitution of religious priv- 
ileges. Our friends of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church seemed to be the first to awake to the 
necessities of the situation ; and the voice of a mis- 
sionary was soon heard in the Eastern churches set- 
ting forth the call for the establishment of gospel 
institutions in Oberlin. The Episcopal Church was 
organized in the year 1855, and was received with a 
degree of hospitality, in spite of the repugnance to 
the division of the church interest. When Bishop 
Mcllvaine first came to look after his little flock, 
the Oberlin First Church was opened to him, and he 
held the service there with his people. 

When once the line was broken, other church or- 



106 OBERLIN. 

ganizations soon followed : the Methodist Episcopal, 
the Baptist, and a Methodist Church for the colored 
people — all organized between 1866 and 1869. 

The congregation of the old church was still very 
large, and it was difficult for new families to find 
comfortable seats in the house, or to make them- 
selves fully at home among so many. After full 
deliberation it was voted by the church, with only 
one dissenting voice, to encourage a part of the 
church to withdraw and organize a Second Con- 
gregational Church. This was done in the spring of 
i860; and the new church, taking about one hun- 
dred members the first year from the old church, 
set up for itself, holding its services in the college 
chapel. Those who volunteered for the new enter- 
prise were dismissed with a benediction, and only 
fraternal feelings have ever existed between the two 
churches. 

Up to this time there had been no pastor in the 
old church exclusively devoted to the work of the 
church. Mr. Finney and his assistants held pro- 
fessorships in the college. 

The Second Church after a few months called a 
pastor, Rev. M. W. Fairfield, to give himself exclu- 
sively to the work. He remained four years, when 
the church returned to the old habit of employing 
the professors, which continued until February, 1876, 
when Rev. Wm. Kincaid was called, and filled the 
position until 1882, when failing health compelled 
him to retire. 

Mr. Finney resigned the pastorate of the First 
Church in 1872, and Rev. James Brand was called 



ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONS. 10? 

iii 1873, and still continues in the work. The First 
and Second churches have been about equally pros- 
pered as to numbers, reporting 870 and 624 respec- 
tively in the Year-book for 1883. 

The war coming on soon after the organization of 
the Second Church, absorbed all the means and en- 
ergy of the people, so that, for six or seven years, 
nothing was done toward building a house. In the 
autumn of 1870 the Second Church was dedicated. 
The audience- room furnishes eleven hundred sit- 
tings, and in the basement are the Sunday-school 
room, prayer-room, and parlors. 

The other churches of the place all have comforta- 
ble houses, so that the church destitution of the 
early days has passed away. There is work and 
room for all ; and it would be difficult to find a com- 
munity in which the different denominations have a 
better understanding with each other, or are more 
ready for all reasonable co-operation. The colored 
church came into existence, not because the colored 
people were not welcomed to all the churches, nor 
because a separate organization was desired by those 
who had been most favored with education and cul- 
ture, but because considerable numbers of them felt 
more at home with a style of service and instruction 
more like that with which they had been familiar 
from their childhood. 

The college is not organically denominational. It 
has no connection with any ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion. The trustees invite the State Congregational 
Associations of Ohio and Michigan to send visitors 
annually to the theological seminary. The board 



108 OB E RUN. 

of trustees is a self-perpetuating body, and there is 
nothing in the charter, nor even in the by-laws, limit- 
ing the choice of trustees in any respect whatsoever. 
The nine corporators named in the charter, as granted 
by the Legislature, were pastors and members of 
churches under the Plan of Union, a considerable 
portion of them decidedly Presbyterian in their lean- 
ings. Of their successors the majority have been 
Congregationalists ; but there have always been mem- 
bers of the Board who were connected with other 
denominations. There is no regulation requiring 
that professors and instructors shall have any church 
connections whatever. There is no creed to which 
theological professors even are required to assent in 
their inauguration. All these things regulate them- 
selves under the organic forces that have controlled 
the movement ; and no embarrassment, no question 
even, has ever arisen upon the subject. The college 
is Congregational, not because of the definite pur- 
pose of the founders, or of any of the earlier framers 
of its polity, but because the seed that was planted 
thus grew. For the first two years it seemed an 
even question under what influences it would at 
length develop. If the surrounding Presbyterianism 
had been able to welcome the new enterprise, Ober- 
lin might have been Presbyterian. 

The students of the college determine for them- 
selves with what church they will worship ; but they 
are required to make a selection, and to attend that 
church continuously for a term. 



POLITICAL ACTION. IOO, 



POLITICAL ACTION. 

The early inhabitants of Oberlin, those who 
came as colonists, were New Englanders, immedi- 
ately or remotely, and hence were members of the 
Whig party. There was probably no exception to 
this rule. The Whig party, as they knew it, was 
the party of order and progress and intelligence, 
and they felt it almost as necessary to be Whigs 
as to be Christians. People of other views in 
politics soon appeared, but they were not of the 
original stock. Until 1837 nothing occurred to in- 
dicate that the people of Oberlin would ever do any- 
thing else than vote the respectable Whig ticket. 
They had become abolitionized, but they were just 
as good Whigs as ever. In the autumn of that year 
there was an election in the county for representa- 
tive to the State Legislature. The day before the 
election a report was circulated in Oberlin that the 
Whig candidate was not careful in his observance 
of the Sabbath. A spontaneous gathering of the 
voters was held, and Mr. Finney and others were 
invited to give their suggestions as to the duty of 
the hour. The result was that a large proportion of 
the Oberlin voters " threw away their votes." The 
two parties were closely balanced in the county, and 
the Oberlin vote turned the scale. The next even- 
ing, as the returns came in at Elyria, the county 
seat, the shouters of the two parties were drawn up 
on opposite sides of the square, and the returns were 
cried out from the court-house steps. The balance 



110 O BERLIN. 

inclined now in one direction, and now in the other ; 
but the Whigs were full of hope until the returns 
came in from Russia township, which contained the 
village of Oberlin. These returns threw their whole 
calculation out of balance, and the Whigs retired in 
disgust. It was currently reported on the streets 
that a dozen men volunteered, and teams were 
offered, to go to Oberlin and " tar and feather Mr. 
Finney." Probably a sober second thought sug- 
gested that the proceeding would scarcely be in 
keeping with the claims of the party of law and 
order. They never appeared at Oberlin. From this 
time Oberlin was reckoned an uncertain quantity in 
the matter of political action. The antislavery 
question began to have a practical bearing both in 
state and general politics; and the Oberlin vote 
could always be depended on where it would tell 
against the pro-slavery attitude of the government. 
If " black laws" for the state of Ohio were in ques- 
tion, the representative from Lorain County had be- 
fore his eyes the Oberlin vote, which still turned the 
scale in the county. The time came at length when 
three men in the Legislature — of whom the represen- 
tative from Lorain, Dr. N. S. Townshend, a trustee 
of Oberlin College, was one — held the balance of 
power between the two parties, and sent Salmon P. 
Chase to the Senate of the United States. Thus 
the antislavery sentiment of the Oberlin people be- 
came an active force in politics. At the Presidential 
election in 1840, a Liberty candidate for the Presi- 
dency was put forward, and the majority of the 
people of Oberlin voted for him. There was some 



POLITICAL ACTION. Ill 

division of sentiment at this time — a portion of the 
people still hoping for antislavery action from the 
Whig party. In 1844 almost the entire Oberlin vote 
was cast for the candidate of the Liberty party, 
James G. Birney. In 1848 there was still some dis- 
traction, but a large majority voted for Van Buren, 
the Free Soil candidate, and afterward the Oberlin 
vote was with the Republican party. It will thus 
appear that the aim at Oberlin in the matter of po- 
litical action has always been practical. The men 
voted for were not always satisfactory representa- 
tives of the Oberlin sentiment, but they occupied 
such a position that a vote for them would bear 
most directly upon the great end. Those who 
claimed to be, during these years, the true, radical, 
abolitionists, were either not voting at all, like the 
followers of Mr. Garrison, or were voting for Gerrit 
Smith, because he was right on all questions pertain- 
ing to slavery. The people at Oberlin voted for Van 
Buren, for Fremont, for Lincoln, because these men 
represented a movement which bore directly upon 
the power and extension of slavery in the land. 

There were other things to be done at Oberlin, in 
an antislavery way, besides the use of the ballot. 
The decision to receive colored students, made when 
there was no such student probably within a hun- 
dred miles, soon brought forth results. The first 
colored student was James Bradley, from Cincinnati, 
who followed the Lane Seminary students to Ober- 
lin. Others soon came, but not in large numbers. 
From 1840 to i860 the proportion of colored stu- 
dents was four or five per cent. Soon after the war 



1 1 2 OBERLltf. 

the ratio rose to seven or eight per cent, but has" 
fallen again to five or six in a hundred. No adap- 
tation of the course of study to the special needs of 
colored pupils was ever made. It was not a colored 
school that was proposed, but a school where colored 
students should have equal privileges with others. 
No record of colored students has been kept distinct 
from the general record. No distinctive mark ap- 
pears in the catalogues. The only reliance for the 
past is the knowledge and memory of instructors 
and others. 

Among the 20,000 different pupils that have been 
in attendance from the beginning probably 1000 
have been colored. Sixty have completed a course 
— thirty-two young men and twenty-eight young 
women. Some of these were brilliant scholars, some 
have attained to distinction, and most are occupy- 
ing positions of usefulness in the land. 

The chief benefit of the open door for the colored 
people at Oberlin, however, has probably not been in 
this direct result, nor even in the indirect effect in 
opening other schools in a similar way. These results 
are important, but above all there is the reaction of 
the arrangement upon the large number of young 
people who have received their education, more or 
less, at Oberlin. These came from all parts of the 
land, and scattered as widely when they left. It mat- 
tered little what were their views on slavery, or their 
feelings toward the colored people, when they came. 
They might at first look scornfully on the colored 
fellow-student, but soon a kindly feeling grew upon 
them, and they became friends of the colored people, 



POLITICAL ACTION. 113 

and champions of their rights ; and thus the anti- 
slavery influence was diffused. It is probable that 
the arrangement was more important to the white 
students than to the colored. The great question of 
the times arrested their attention, and they became 
settled in their attitude and action in regard to it. 
A single colored student in each class, unconsciously 
to himself, accomplished the work. He stood there 
in his own right, " a man and a brother," more effec- 
tive than all the antislavery sermons that Oberlin 
could have brought to bear. No such sermons were 
called for. Every student was left to determine for 
himself whether he would recognize his colored fel- 
low-pupil. Nothing in this respect was required of 
him. He was not permitted to abuse him, and that 
was the limit of the obligation imposed. Classes 
were never seated alphabetically in the recitation- 
room or in the chapel ; hence no one was required 
to sit next a colored student. He must consent to 
be in the same class with him, or forego the oppor- 
tunities of the school ; but to this he had made up 
his mind when he came. No difficulties in discipline, 
so far as is remembered, ever arose from the arrange- 
ment. In a few rare instances a colored and a white 
boy have had a quarrel, and occasionally a colored 
student has imagined that some disrespect was shown 
him by a fellow-student ; but in general each one 
has found the place that belonged to him, in the re- 
gard of his fellows, irrespective of color. 

The same action which brought colored students 
to the school, brought colored families to the town 
to find their homes. At first, some of the more 



1 14 OBERLIN. 

properous of the free colored people of the Slave 
States came in to secure privileges for themselves 
and their children. Some of the more enterprising 
of the slaves at length heard of Oberlin, and crept 
in stealthily to see whether what they had heard 
was true. Some of these found courage to remain, 
and thus the colored element gradually increased 
until it has become a fifth part of the population. 
There are among the colored people several pros- 
perous business men and successful mechanics. A 
larger portion are day laborers. They are a quiet 
and peaceable people in general, anxious for educa- 
tion for their children, and on the whole gradually 
improving. 

Oberlin was, of course, an important station on 
the Underground Railroad ; and a volume might 
be written of incidents and experiences, pathetic, 
amusing, and exciting, which befell the people in 
meeting their responsibilities in regard to this busi- 
ness. The fugitives who came through Oberlin 
were generally shipped for Canada, at some neigh- 
boring port on the Lake, between Cleveland and 
Sandusky. There were captains of sailing vessels 
and steamers, many of them, who, it was well under- 
stood, would never observe when a group of timid 
fugitives crept aboard their ships, and hid them- 
selves away in some dark corner ; and there were men 
at all these ports ready to despatch a trusty messenger 
to Oberlin when such a ship came in. It was a con- 
venience in the transaction of the business that it 
mattered little to what port in Canada the vessel 
was bound. The emigrants could be dropped at 



POLITICAL ACTION. 115 

any point between Windsor and the Welland Canal, 
to their entire satisfaction. It was free soil they 
were in pursuit of, and it was of no account what 
other qualities the soil possessed. If it yielded no 
fetters nor masters, it was the soil for them. Some 
of these fugitives found themselves so comfortable 
at Oberlin, that they lingered here, and made a per- 
manent home. There was risk in this, and it was 
not generally encouraged. But there were always 
numbers of this class among the colored people, and 
the appearance of a suspected slave-catcher in the 
community produced consternation. Every device 
for concealing fugitives was resorted to ; every move- 
ment for transporting them to the point of embarka- 
was carefully planned. Sometimes the ruse was 
adopted of starting off a load of pretended fugitives 
toward the Lake, with great show of carefulness, 
while the real fugitives were quietly taken away in 
another direction. In one instance a student es- 
corted a colored man, attired and veiled as a woman, 
on horseback, across the country to Huron. 

It was not regarded as legitimate to go into the 
Slave States and entice the slaves from their mas- 
ters ; not because of scruples in regard to the mas- 
ter's real ownership, but because it would be a reck- 
less undertaking, involving too much risk, and proba- 
bly doing more harm than good. One person, Cal- 
vin Fairbanks, went from Oberlin to Kentucky for 
this purpose, in 1845, against the remonstrance of 
several who knew his intention. He soon found 
himself in the penitentiary, and served out a term 
of eleven years. There was abundant sympathy for 



Il6 OBERLM. 

him, but no approval of his undertaking. An- 
other, George Thompson, who had been a student 
at Oberlin, but was at the time a member of Mission 
Institute at Quincy, 111., for an effort to aid a slave 
to escape from Missouri, served a term of five years, 
with two companions, in the Missouri Penitentiary. 
Not to deliver to his master the servant that had 
escaped from his master, seemed to the people of 
Oberlin a solemn and pressing duty. This attitude 
exposed the college and the community to much 
reproach, and sometimes apparently to serious dan- 
ger. Threats came from abroad that the college 
buildings should be burned. A Democratic Legis- 
lature, at different times, agitated the question of 
repealing the college charter. The fourth and last 
attempt was made in 1843, when the bill for repeal 
was indefinitely postponed in the House, by a vote 
of thirty-six to twenty-nine. 

The people in neighboring towns were, at the 
outset, not in sympathy with Oberlin in its anti- 
slavery position. They agreed with the rest of the 
world in regarding it as unmitigated fanaticism. 
The feeling was often bitter and intense, and an 
Oberlin man going out from home in any direction 
was liable to be assailed with bitter words ; and if 
he ventured to lecture upon the unpopular theme, 
he was fortunate if he encountered words only. Of 
course the self-respectful part of the community 
would take no part in such abuse, but fellows of the 
baser sort felt themselves sustained by the common 
feeling. On the Middle Ridge road, six miles north 
of Oberlin, a guide-board put up by the authorities, 



POLITICAL ACTION. 117 

stood for years, pointing the way to Oberlin, not by 
the ordinary index finger, but by the full length fig- 
ure of a fugitive running with all his might to reach 
the place. The tavern sign, four miles east, was 
ornamented, on its Oberlin face, with the representa- 
tion of a fugitive slave pursued by a tiger. Where 
the general feeling yielded such results, not much 
could be expected in the way of sympathy for the 
fugitives. But even among these people the slave- 
catcher had little favor. They would thwart his 
pursuit in every way, and shelter the fugitive if 
they could. Only the meanest and most mercenary 
could be hired to betray the victim. Now and then 
an official felt called upon to extend aid and comfort 
to the slave-hunter who claimed his service, but 
he could expect no toleration from his neighbors in 
such a course. A whole neighborhood would sud- 
denly find themselves abolitionists upon the appear- 
ance of a slave-hunter among them ; and by repeated 
occurrences of this kind, as much as by any other 
means, Lorain County, and all Northern Ohio, be- 
came at length intensely antislavery in feeling and 
action. 

It was not often that a slave was seized in Oberlin, 
and no one, during all the dark years, was ever carried 
back to bondage. Violent resistance, in the form of 
personal assault upon the kidnapper, was not encour- 
aged, and no instance of bloodshed or personal harm 
ever occurred ; but the people would rally in a mass 
and hinder the captor from proceeding with his vic- 
tim, and oblige him to exhibit his authority, and 
repair at once to the nearest court to establish the 



Il8 BERLIN. 

legality of his proceedings. Often the illegality of 
the process was so marked that the slaves would be 
at once discharged ; and once discharged, they were 
soon beyond danger. 

In the spring of 1841 an arrest took place, one 
Friday evening, at a house then standing in the 
forest one mile east of the centre. Some public 
meeting was in progress in the college chapel when 
the alarm reached town. A committee of citizens 
and students was appointed to follow the kidnap- 
pers, and do whatever could be legally done to res- 
cue the two victims, a man and his wife, from their 
clutches. The people turned out in committee of 
the whole, entirely unarmed, and without definite 
thought as to what could be done. They overtook 
the company on the State road, two or three miles 
south-east of the village, and effectually interrupted 
their progress for the night. In the morning the 
slave-claimants were induced to go to Elyria and 
have their process reviewed in court. Their papers 
were found to be irregular, and the two fugitives 
were placed in jail until the claimants could return 
to Kentucky and obtain the required evidence. At 
the same time a warrant was served upon the claim- 
ants for assault and battery with deadly weapons, 
and threats of violence toward members of the fam- 
ily that had sheltered the fugitives, and they were 
bound over to appear in the same court in their own 
defence. Before the day of trial came, one of the 
two received a summons to appear before the Judge 
of all the earth. The other returned sad and de- 
jected to the twofold trial, to find that the slaves 



POLITICAL ACTION. II9 

had broken jail and escaped. The Kentuckian, too, 
was released without trial. It did not appear that 
any force from without had been used in behalf of 
the slaves. A basket-maker in the jail had been fur- 
nished by the jailer with the implements of his trade 
with which he opened a way for himself, and the 
others followed. 

Under the notorious fugitive-slave law of 1850, a 
case of attempted recovery of a fugitive occurred in 
September, 1858. The case appeared in the U. S. 
Circuit Court at Cleveland the following spring, and 
excited much interest in the country as the " Ober- 
lin-Wellington Rescue Case," It was nearly the 
last instance of an attempt to execute the fugitive 
slave law in Northern Ohio, as well as in the coun- 
try. John Brown came a few months later, then 
Lincoln and Sumter and emancipation. A young 
black man, John Price, supposed to be a fugitive 
from Kentucky, had been some months at Oberlin, 
when a group of four strangers came into town and 
took up their quarters at an obscure tavern where 
they would attract little attention, and where, if at 
all, they would find some sympathy with their un- 
dertaking. About four miles from town they found 
a man ready to afford them advice, and with a young 
son of this man, about thirteen years of age, they 
laid a plot for the seizure of John. The scheme 
was arranged on Sunday, and Monday morning the 
boy came into town with a horse and buggy, looked 
up John, and offered him large wages to go with him 
into the country a mile or two to dig potatoes. A 
mile or more out of town, as they were driving very 



120 OBERLIN. 

leisurely, they were overtaken by a carriage contain- 
ing one of the parties from Kentucky and two oth- 
ers, a deputy U. S. marshal and a deputy sheriff 
from Columbus, O. Two of these men stepped out, 
seized John, hurried him, with threats and a show of 
weapons, into their carriage, and took the diagonal 
road, two miles east of Oberlin, which leads to Wel- 
lington, nine miles south. At Wellington they would 
soon find a train for Columbus and Cincinnati. For 
this treachery the boy, as he afterward testified in 
court, was paid twenty dollars. 

Two men coming from Pittsfield met the car- 
riage which was bearing John away, and reported 
the fact in town. Some of the colored people had 
had suspicions and alarms the previous week, on ac- 
count of inquiries made, and were ready at once to 
accept the idea that John had been carried off. The 
news spread through the town, and under a com- 
mon impulse, without concerted action, large num- 
bers of the people, white and colored, citizens and 
students, were soon on the road to Wellington. 
Every form of conveyance was pressed into service, 
and probably two or three hundred people in all 
went from Oberlin to Wellington that afternoon. 
Others fell in along the way, and Wellington fur- 
nished its share of the crowd. John and his captors, 
the two officers from Columbus and the two men 
from Kentucky, were waiting at the hotel for the 
first train going south. The crowd soon swarmed 
about the house, and John was taken to a room in 
the garret for safe-keeping. Quite a number of 
guns appeared in the crowd — some of the witnesses 



POLITICAL ACTION. 12 1 

in court put the number as high as fifty ; one of the 
Kentuckians estimated it at five hundred. No gun 
was fired, and it is not certain that one was loaded. 
The crowd acted without concert and had no leader, 
but persistently kept their place around the house, 
and filled the rooms below and above. They were 
not harmonious in their views of what ought to be 
done ; the more conservative were disposed to as- 
certain that the proceedings had been regular under 
the fugitive-slave law, and on that condition to al- 
low the party to go on its way. The larger portion 
probably had no respect for the infamous law, and 
held it their duty to rescue John, whatever the au- 
thority by which he was held. No one seemed to 
take responsibility on one side or on the other. 
Different persons, among them a magistrate and a 
lawyer of Wellington, were shown the warrant in 
the hands of the marshal for the arrest of John, and 
this warrant was read to the crowd ; but it brought 
no relief. The train for the south passed, but did 
not take John and his captors. Finally, near sun- 
set, a little group that had gathered about John in 
the upper room started him down the stairs, and 
the crowd passed him on to a buggy standing near, 
lifted him in, and the buggy was driven rapidly 
toward Oberlin. John found refuge in Oberlin two 
or three days, and was then sent on to Canada. It 
was a flagrant case of resistance to the execution of 
the fugitive law ; and if it were allowed to pass 
without serious animadversion, the law, which was 
supposed to be vital to the maintenance of the 
Union, would fall. The machinery of the govern- 



122 OBERLIN. 

ment was set in motion, and a trial in the United 
States Court at Cleveland was determined on. Judge 
Willson brought the case before the grand jury in an 
elaborate charge, from which the following is an ex- 
tract : 

" There are some who oppose the execution of 
this law from a declared sense of conscientious duty. 
There is, in fact, a sentiment prevalent in the com- 
munity which arrogates to human conduct a stand- 
ard of right above, and independent of, human laws ; 
and it makes the conscience of each individual in so- 
ciety the test of his own accountability to the laws 
of the land. 

" While those who cherish this dogma claim and 
enjoy the protection of the law for their own life 
and property, they are unwilling that the law should 
be operative for the protection of the constitutional 
rights of others. It is a sentiment semi-religious in 
its development, and is almost invariably character^ 
ized by intolerance and bigotry. The leaders of 
those who acknowledge its obligations and advocate 
its sanctity are like the subtle prelates of the dark 
ages. They are versed in all they consider useful 
and sanctified learning. Trained in certain schools in 
New England to manage words, they are equally 
successful in the social circle to manage hearts ; sek 
dom superstitious themselves, yet skilled in practis- 
ing upon the superstition and credulity of others — 
false, as it is natural a man should be whose dogmas 
impose upon all who are not saints according to his 
creed the necessity of being hypocrites ; selfish, as it 
is natural a man should be who claims for himself 



POLITICAL ACTION. 1 23 

the benefits of the law and the right to violate it, 
thereby denying its protection to others. . . . 

" Gentlemen, this sentiment should find no place 
or favor in the grand-jury room. 
The fugitive-slave law may, and unquestionably 
does, contain provisions repugnant to the moral 
sense of many good and conscientious people ; nev- 
ertheless, it is the law of the United States, and as 
such should be recognized and executed by our 
courts and juries, until abrogated or otherwise 
changed by the legislative department of the gov- 
ernment." 

This is a favorable specimen of the manner in 
which the doctrine of " the higher law" was dealt 
with in those days. A ruder statement of the same 
idea was made by Judge Leavitt, of Cincinnati, the 
same year. In a charge to the jury he said : ''Chris- 
tian charity was not within the meaning or intent of 
the fugitive-slave law, and it would not, therefore, 
answer as a defence for violating the law." 

The grand jury, moved by this charge, made out 
thirty-seven indictments against twenty-four citizens 
of Oberlin and thirteen of Wellington. Among the 
Oberlin men were Prof. H. E. Peck, of the College 
Faculty; J. M. Fitch, superintendent of the large 
Oberlin Sunday-school; Ralph Plumb, a lawyer; 
and other prominent citizens and students, good 
men and true. Among the men from Wellington 
were several of their leading citizens, pioneers of the 
town, and pillars in society. 

The same day, Marshal Johnson appeared in 
Oberlin to arrest these violators of law. He called 



124 OBERLIN. 

first on Professor Peck and made known his errand, 
and asked of him the favor of an introduction to 
the other parties. He accepted from each one the 
promise to appear at Cleveland in court the next day. 
According to promise, these men appeared in court 
Dec. /th, and asked for immediate trial, but at the in- 
stance of the prosecuting attorney the case was ad- 
journed first to March 8th, and again to April 5th. 
The defendants declined to give bail, and were sent 
away upon their own recognizance of $1000 each. 
On the 5th of April the trial commenced, and con- 
tinued with slight interruptions until the middle of 
May, when the cases were put over until the July 
term. At this time two of the alleged rescuers, 
Simeon Bushnell, a white man, and Charles H. 
Langston, a colored man, had been convicted and 
sentenced. Messrs. Spalding, Riddle and Griswold, 
prominent lawyers of Cleveland, had volunteered to 
conduct the case for the defence without charge. 
They had done their work with great ability, but 
the conviction seemed a foregone conclusion. Bush- 
nell was sentenced to sixty days' imprisonment, a 
fine of six hundred dollars and costs of prosecu- 
tion — understood to be about two thousand more. 
Langston, when asked if he had anything to say for 
himself, made a manly and eloquent address, which 
thrilled the court and indeed the country. The clos- 
ing paragraph was as follows : 

" But I stand up here to say, that if, for doing 
what I did that day at Wellington, I am to go in jail 
six months, and pay a fine of a thousand dollars, ac- 
cording to the fugitive-slave law, and such is the pro- 



POLITICAL ACTION. 125 

tection the laws of this country afford me, I must take 
upon myself the responsibility of self-protection ; 
and when I come to be claimed by some perjured 
wretch as his slave, I shall never be taken into 
slavery. And as in that trying hour I would have 
others do to me ; as I would call upon others to help 
me ; as I would call upon you, your Honor, to help 
me ; as I would call upon you, [to the district attor- 
ney], and upon you [to the counsel for prosecution] 
and upon you [to his own counsel], so help me GOD ! 
I stand here to say that I will do all I can for any 
man thus seized and held, though the inevitable pen- 
alty of six months' imprisonment and one thousand 
dollars' fine for each offence hangs over me. We 
have a common humanity. You would do so ;- your 
manhood would require it : and, no matter what the 
laws might be, you would honor yourself for doing 
it ; your friends would honor you for doing it ; your 
children to all generations would honor you for do- 
ing it ; and every good and honest man would say 
you had done right." 

The court seemed impressed by this appeal, and 
sentenced Langston to a fine of only one hundred 
dollars and twenty days' imprisonment, with costs of 
prosecution. 

In pronouncing the sentence upon Bushnell the 
judge indulged in various arguments in support of 
the action of the court, of which the following is a 
specimen : 

" A man of your intelligence must know that if 
the standard of right is placed above and against the 
laws of the land, those who act up to it are anything 



1 26 OBERLIJST. 

else than good citizens and good Christians. You 
must know that when a man acts upon any system 
of morals or theology which teaches him to disregard 
and violate the laws of the government that protects 
him in life and property, his conduct is as criminal as 
his example is dangerous." 

This is an illustration of the logic and the spirit in 
which the fugitive-slave law was defended in those 
days. It would be admitted that there might be a 
conflict between this law and the law of God, and 
then the principle was boldly announced that man's 
law was to be obeyed rather than God's. 

The political aspect of the trial was very distinct. 
The judge, the prosecuting attorney and assisting 
counsel, and every member of the jury in Bushnell's 
case belonged to the party of the administration, 
while every one of the defendants and their counsel 
were of the opposition. 

At the close of Langston's trial, when the cases 
were to be deferred from the middle of May to the 
July term, several of the indicted from Wellington 
entered a plea of nolle contendere, and were sen- 
tenced to pay a fine of twenty dollars each and costs 
of prosecution, and to remain in jail twenty-four 
hours. One old man from Wellington was almost 
entreated to leave the jail and go home. He at 
length consented. Thus all that remained, including 
the two convicted parties, were fourteen Oberlin 
men. These had been in jail since April 15th, and 
were to continue in jail through the recess of court. 
■ — two long summer months, and how much longer 
no one could foresee. They continued in jail upon a 




CLEVELAND JAIL 



POLITICAL ACTION. 12? 

point of honor. At the beginning of the trial they 
had been allowed to come and go upon their recogni- 
zance, giving their personal pledge for appearance 
when called for. At the conclusion of Bushnell's 
trial there was a ruling of the court so unjust, that 
they gave notice that they would dismiss their coun- 
sel, call no witnesses, and make no defence ; and their 
counsel approved their decision. Thereupon the 
prosecuting attorney demanded that they should be 
taken into custody, and they were taken in charge 
by the marshal, and declining to give bail they were 
committed to jail. The unjust ruling was afterwards 
recalled in fact, and they were notified that their 
own recognizance would be accepted as before ; but 
a false record had been made — a record which put 
the defendants in the wrong, and the court refused 
to correct it. They therefore declined to renew 
their recognizance or to give bail, and therefore they 
lay in jail from the 15th of April on. The sheriff 
to whom they were committed, and the jailer, and 
indeed a large portion of the people of Cleveland, 
were their warm friends, and in hearty sympathy 
with their course. 

During the recess of court an attempt was made 
to obtain relief by an appeal to the State courts. A 
writ of habeas corpus was granted by one of the 
judges of the Supreme Court, commanding the 
sheriff to bring Bushnell and Langston before the 
court, that the reason of their imprisonment might 
be considered. The case was ably argued before 
the full bench, at Columbus, for a week; but the 
court, three to two, declined to grant a release. 



128 OBERLIN. 

This was a severe blow to the men in jail. They 
had counted with much confidence upon relief from 
that quarter. It is idle to speculate upon possible 
results, if a single judge had held a different opinion. 
Salmon P. Chase was governor at that time, and it 
was well understood that he would sustain a decision 
releasing the prisoners, by all the power at his com- 
mand ; and the United States Government was as 
fully committed to the execution of the fugitive-slave 
law. This would have placed Ohio in conflict with 
the general government in defence of State rights, 
and if the party of freedom throughout the North 
had rallied, as seemed probable, the war might have 
come in 1859 instead of 1861, with a secession of the 
Northern instead of the Southern States. A single 
vote apparently turned the scale ; and after a little de- 
lay the party of freedom took possession of the govern- 
ment, and the party of slavery became the seceders. 
Of course those who urged Ohio to the conflict did 
not anticipate war with the general government. 
They expected the general government to retire 
from the execution of the fugitive-slave law, and thus 
remove the occasion of the conflict. 

During this recess of court, on the 24th of May, 
a mass meeting was convened in Cleveland, gather- 
ing the people of Northern Ohio by thousands, to 
express their sympathy with the rescuers, and their 
intense condemnation of the fugitive-slave law. 
There was great enthusiasm — an immense proces- 
sion with banners passing through the streets, and 
around the square, and in front of the jail. The 
crowds were addressed by Joshua R. Giddings and 



POLITICAL ACTION. 1 29 

Salmon P. Chase, with other distinguished men. 
Mr. Giddings was bold and defiant : 

" I have no hesitation as to the means for acting- 
upon this great matter which is now before us. I 
would have a committee appointed to-day to apply 
to the first and nearest officer who has the power, that 
he shall issue a writ for the release of those prisoners, 
and I want to be appointed on that committee, and 
if so I will promise you that no sleep shall come to 
my eyelids this night until I have used my utmost 
endeavors to have these men released. I will, if such 
a committee be appointed, apply to Judge Tilden 
[at his side], and if he flinched in the exercise of his 
duty, and refused to issue this writ, I would never 
speak to him again, or give him my hand. If he 
failed I would go to another and another, until death 
came to close my eyelids. I know that the Demo- 
cratic press throughout the country has represented 
me as counselling forcible resistance to this law, and 
God knows it is the first truth they have ever told 
about me." 

Governor Chase was more wary and circumspect, 
with a sense of immediate responsibility : 

" If the process for the release of any prisoner 
should issue from the courts of the State, he was free' 
to say that so long as Ohio was a sovereign State 
that process should be executed. He did not coun- 
sel revolutionary measures, but when his time came 
and his duty was plain, he, as the Governor of Ohio, 
would meet it as a man." 

The resolutions adopted by the meeting were de- 
cided and radical, and, read at this day, sound as if 



1 30 OBERLIN. 

they had emanated from some State-rights conven- 
tion. The last scene was a gathering of the crowds 
around the jail yard, to listen to brief addresses from 
Messrs. Langston, Peck, Fitch, and Plumb in behalf 
of the prisoners. Their words were earnest and de- 
termined, without railing or bitterness. The meet- 
ing yielded no immediate result in behalf of the 
prisoners, and no such result was anticipated. It 
amounted to a notice that the fugitive-slave law was 
to be no farther executed in Northern Ohio. 

The rescuers, after this, settled down to prison 
life, without any distinct anticipation when or how 
the end was to come. Some of them were mechan- 
ics, of various crafts, and their friends furnished 
them the tools and materials for prosecuting their 
business. Two of them were printers, and a print- 
ing-office was soon established in the jail, and a paper 
named the " The Rescuer" was issued. Five thou- 
sand copies of the first number were sent out, and it 
was promised every alternate Monday. The two 
students in the group were furnished with books, 
and set themselves to the work of their classes. 
Visitors from all parts of the land came to the jail, 
and letters of sympathy and funds to meet expenses 
poured in upon them. 

One of the most interesting occasions at the jail 
was a visit of four hundred Sabbath-school chil- 
dren from Oberlin — the school of which Mr. Fitch 
had been superintendent sixteen years. They were 
invited and entertained by the Sabbath-school of 
the Plymouth Church, Cleveland ; then they filed 
into the jail, filling all its corridors and open spaces, 





f^sJ^?^, 



POLITICAL ACTION. I3I 

and an hour was given to brief addresses from their 
superintendent and others, with music interspersed. 
This was on the 2d of July. Four days later, the 
jail doors opened and the rescuers came forth, and 
were escorted with jubilations to their homes. 

The occasion of the release was this : The four 
men who were engaged in the seizure of John at 
Oberlin had been indicted in Lorain County for 
kidnapping, and their trial was set for the 6th of 
July, six days before the resumption of the trials in 
the U. S. court at Cleveland. The indictment was 
not without apparent foundation. The description 
given of John, in the power of attorney under which 
the seizure was made, was grossly deficient and in- 
accurate, and there was no sufficient proof of title to 
John in the claimant who issued the power of attor- 
ney. These indicted men were abroad on bail until 
near the time of trial at Elyria. Then a writ of habeas 
corpus was obtained from a judge of the U. S. court, 
and an attempt was made to deliver up the four men 
to the sheriff of Lorain County, that the writ might 
be served upon him, and his prisoners be released 
by order of the U. S. judge. An accumulation of 
hindrances prevented this delivery, and the hour 
of trial was just at hand when the writ would be 
useless. The men were alarmed. They interceded 
with the U. S. attorney to propose to the counsel 
for the rescuers that the suits on both sides should 
be dropped. To this the rescuers consented. The 
marshal went to the jail and announced that they 
were free. They were escorted from the prison to 
the train by several hundred of the citizens of 



132 BERLIN. 

Cleveland, to the music of Hecker's band, while 
a hundred guns were fired on the square. The last 
tune from the band as the train started was " Home, 
Sweet Home." The Plain Dealer of that evening 
announced the result with great disgust : " So the 
government has been beaten at last, with law, jus- 
tice, and facts all on its side, and Oberlin, with its 
rebellious, higher law creed, is triumphant." 

At Oberlin the rescuers were met at the station 
by the whole mass of the people, and escorted to 
the great church, where for hours, until midnight, 
the pent-up feeling of the people found expression 
in song and prayer, and familiar talk over the ex- 
periences of the preceding weeks. It was a costly 
price to pay, but it secured to Oberlin, from that 
time on, freedom from the incursions of the slave- 
catcher, and Northern Ohio largely shared in the 
immunity. 



CHAPTER VI. 

EARLY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY. 

OBERLIN was itself a missionary enterprise. It was 
the purpose to carry the Gospel to the regions beyond 
that had brought Mr. and Mrs. Shipherd, under ap- 
pointment from the American Home Missionary So- 
ciety, to the regions of Northern Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. 
Stewart had been engaged for years as missionaries 
among the Choctaws in the State of Mississippi, and, 
while resting from those labors for the recovery of 
health, they pledged themselves for five years to the 
work of laying the foundations at Oberlin, without 
any compensation but food and clothing. The families 
that came to find their homes in the wilderness had 
no visions of improved outward circumstances and 
growing wealth. They came to aid in establishing 
a community and an institution which should con- 
tribute to the evangelization of the Mississippi valley 
— then the " New West." The students, for the most 
part, came with the same purpose, their hearts full 
of the earnest impulses which had been begotten in 
the great revival movement of those years. One of 
the earliest associations organized among the stu- 
dents was a Missionary Society, embracing such as 
contemplated a life-work in the foreign field. 

The first among the students to enter upon mis- 



134 OBERLIN. 

sionary service was Miss Angeline Tenney, who 
married Mr. S. N. Castle, a missionary of the Ameri- 
can Board, and went to the Sandwich Islands, in 
1836. But from this time on, for many years, the 
earnest antislavery feeling on the part of Oberlin 
students, and the somewhat dubious attitude of the 
American Board on the subject of slavery, combined 
to prevent men and women from Oberlin receiving 
appointments from the Board. The distrust seemed 
to be mutual. The conservative fathers at the East 
looked with apprehension upon what seemed to 
them, in the distance, the religious and reformatory 
fanaticism of Oberlin, and wisely, as they thought, 
concluded not to open the way for its extension to 
their field. An Oberlin young woman was now and 
then sent out, without objection, as the wife of a mis- 
sionary, whose only connection with Oberlin was by 
marriage. There were two or three instances of 
young men, with sufficient conservative endorsement, 
receiving appointments from the Board. But in gen- 
eral Oberlin students were disinclined to seek such 
appointments, although there was at that time no 
other missionary organization to which they could 
look for support. The church at Oberlin, with rare 
individual exceptions, did not contribute to the 
funds of the American Board, but found other chan- 
nels for their missionary gifts, until the Board at- 
tained a more satisfactory attitude on the subject of 
slavery. 

Under these conditions the idea of self-sustaining 
missions was very generally favored, and a large 
amount of independent missionary work was accom- 



EARLY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY. 1 35 

plished. Much of this, very naturally, was expended 
among the colored people, at home and abroad. 
Teachers of colored schools went to Cincinnati, and 
to other towns of Ohio, where the colored people 
were found in sufficient numbers to call for such ser- 
vices — sometimes encouraged by the promise of aid 
from some philanthropic person in the neighbor- 
hood, often without compensation except the little 
that the colored people themselves could afford. 
Missionaries and teachers in considerable numbers 
went to the colored fugitives in Canada, led by Hi- 
ram Wilson, of the Theological Class of 1836, one 
of the Lane Seminary men. Funds were raised among 
the antislavery people of Ohio, and at the East, to 
sustain this Canada mission. 

In the winter of 1836-7, David S. Ingraham, an- 
other of the Lane students, finding it necessary for 
his health to seek a warmer climate, went to Ha- 
vana, Cuba. He was a skilful mechanic, and finding 
that he could sustain himself there without difficulty, 
he conceived the idea of establishing a self-support- 
ing mission among the colored people of Jamaica, 
recently emancipated. He returned to Oberlin, was 
ordained as a missionary, and in the autumn of 1837, 
with his wife and several other recruits to the mis- 
sion, he left for Jamaica. Thus the American mis- 
sion to the freed people of Jamaica was established. 
Other Oberlin students followed, during the next fif- 
teen years, until nearly forty in all, young men and 
young women, had shared in the work of the mis- 
sion. Several of these died in the field. Mr. Ingra- 
ham, after four years of very exhausting labor, lived 



1 36 BERLIN. 

to reach this country, but died three days after land^ 
ing at New York. His young daughter was edu^ 
cated at Oberlin, and gave her life to the work which 
her father had left, dying, as he did, soon after her re^ 
turn to this country. During the first few years of 
the mission, the missionaries relied almost wholly 
upon their own field for their support, and to a 
considerable extent upon the work of their own 
hands. They built their own mission houses and 
school-houses and chapels. Some aid came to them 
from the London Missionary Society, and from 
school funds provided for the education of the freed- 
men. After a time a "West India Committee" was 
established at New York, to receive and forward 
contributions to the work. One of this band, Rev. 
James A. Preston, in 1841, having recently com- 
pleted his theological course, wrote to the officers of 
the " Union Missionary Society," then just organ- 
ized at Hartford, Conn., asking an appointment for 
himself and his wife to the mission in Jamaica, and 
thus presented his case and expectations: " Money 
we have not ; our friends who love Zion are poor; 
the American and other education societies have 
assisted in defraying the expenses of my education; 
should I make application for aid in behalf of myself 
and assistant — a female teacher, each of us having 
the requisite recommendations and testimonials, 
would the directors of your society — thanks to the 
God of the oppressed that it has been formed — feel 
disposed to grant us the money necessary for our 
outfit and passage ? After that we will trust, under 
God, to the generous gratitude which glows in the 



EARLY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY. 1 37 

breast of the disenthralled. I should expect to 
raise funds in this vicinity sufficient to defray our 
expenses to New York." Preston was sent out 
upon the conditions proposed, and after six years of 
labor returned to this country to die. As the years 
passed on it became evident that the work in Ja- 
maica might properly be left to English Christians, 
and no more reinforcements were sent to the Amer- 
ican mission, and most of the missionaries that sur- 
vived returned to this country. Two still cling to 
the work to which they gave their lives more than 
forty years ago : Rev. Julius O. Beardslee, of the 
first college class that graduated at Oberlin ; and 
Mrs. Seth B. Wolcott, whose husband was a gradu- 
ate of 1 841. She buried her husband there in 1874, 
and their son, Henry B. Wolcott, of the class of 
1870, is carrying on the work which his father left. 
The field upon which this hearty and exhausting la- 
bor was expended, though in some aspects inviting, 
was on the whole a hard one, exhibiting in a strange 
combination the superstitions of African heathenism, 
and the vices engendered by West Indian slavery. 

In the year 1839, a Spanish ship, the Amistad, 
came into port at New London, Conn., having on 
board nearly fifty native Africans who had been 
brought to Havana, in Cuba, and sold to two slave- 
traders, to be transported to Principe, three hundred 
miles distant. On the passage they were told by 
the ship's cook that they were to be killed and eaten 
on reaching Principe. This so excited them that 
they rose upon the crew, killed the cook, put their 
owners in irons, and dealt out to them bread and 



I38 BERLIN. 

water in such rations as they had received from 
them, and ordered the pilot to take them to Africa. 
He brought them to the American coast. Their 
owners, backed by the Spanish Government, claimed 
the Africans as slaves, and the government at Wash- 
ington, with decided pro-slavery tendencies, was 
ready and rather eager to favor the claim. But the 
antislavery sentiment throughout the country was 
intensely moved ; prominent men in New York and 
Boston, and elsewhere, took up the case, and after a 
series of trials in the United States courts, the last 
at Washington, where the case of the captives was 
powerfully supported by John Quincy Adams, they 
were declared free. They were kidnapped Africans, 
and not slaves. 

This decision was awaited with intense interest, 
and the news would naturally spread over the coun- 
try with great rapidity. It came from Washington 
to Oberlin in nine days. These Africans had been 
in the country somewhat more than two years, while 
their case was before the courts. They were kept in 
jail, but Christian people were permitted to see them 
and give them daily instruction. It was ascertained 
that they were all from a limited region of West 
Africa, called Mendi, about one hundred miles south 
of Sierra Leone, and forty to sixty miles from the 
coast, and six or seven degrees north of the equator. 
They used different dialects of the same language, 
and could understand one another. They seemed 
a bright and amiable people, and the plan was 
formed of making them the nucleus of a mission to 
West Africa. As it was to be an antislavery mis- 



EARLY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY. 1 39 

sion, Oberlin was naturally called on to furnish the 
pioneer missionaries. James Steele, of the Theolog- 
ical Class of 1840, was chosen as the leader of the 
enterprise ; and Wm. Raymond, who had been drawn 
from Amherst College to Oberlin by his antislavery 
sympathies, and afterward to the fugitives in Can- 
ada, was called as his associate. The company of 
Africans, which numbered fifty-three when they were 
shipped from Havana, had been reduced by death 
to thirty-nine. With this company, Mr. Steele, Mr. 
and Mrs. Raymond, and Mr. and Mrs. Wilson — col- 
ored — sailed from New York for Sierra Leone, Nov. 
27, 1 841 ; and thus the Mendi Mission was begun. 
A " Mendi Committee" was established at New 
York, of which Lewis Tappan was treasurer, to so- 
licit and appropriate funds for the mission. 

The Mendians, when they left this country, 
seemed interested in the establishment of the mis- 
sion in their country ; but they lacked stability and 
character, and their connection with the mission 
was a doubtful advantage. Three or four of them 
were steadfast and faithful to the missionaries, but 
the rest fell back to their old heathen life upon 
reaching the country. Mr. Steele was taken with 
the fever at Sierra Leone, and was obliged to return 
to this country; but Mr. Raymond went on to the 
Mendi country, established the mission, and after 
six years of exhausting but effective work, died at 
Sierra Leone in the spring of 1848. 

George Thompson, of Oberlin, who had learned to 
endure hardness as a good soldier, in a mission of 
five years in the Missouri State Prison, succeeded 



140 BERLIN. 

to Mr. Raymond's work, going out in April, 1848. 
There followed him Dr. and Mrs. Tefft, Mr. and 
Mrs. Arnold, and others, until fifteen in all had gone 
from Oberlin to the Mendi Mission. Of these, eight 
died at the mission, and the rest were compelled, 
sooner or later, to return to this country for their 
health. The site of the mission was unfortunate, 
not being far enough interior to escape the fatal ma- 
laria of the lowlands of the coast. The mission has 
been carried on with more or less success until the 
present time, but during the last twenty-five years 
none have joined it from Oberlin. The precious 
lives which were sacrificed there might seem too 
great a price to pay for the work accomplished ; but 
no word of regret was ever heard from those who 
died, or from those who lived to labor. " Except a 
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abid- 
eth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
fruit." 

The Indians of the great West early attracted the 
attention of Oberlin students. As early as 1837 or 
1838 several families left Oberlin with the thought 
of missionary work among the Indians — some to 
stop on this side of the Rocky Mountains and some 
to pass beyond into Oregon. The whole United 
States territory beyond was then Oregon, and the 
Rocky Mountains themselves were more difficult to 
reach than the heart of Africa to-day. Yet these 
persons went out little knowing whither they went, 
with limited means of their own, and with no ex- 
pectation of aid from home. They were practical 
men, capable of making homes for themselves in any 



EARLY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY. I4I 

land that could sustain human life, and no special 
apprehension was felt for them here. Mr. Finney 
announced, about that time, that a man was not fit 
for a missionary who could not " take an ear of corn 
in his pocket and start for the Rocky Mountains." 

The only ordained minister who struck out from 
Oberlin on this distant mission was John S. Griffin, 
of the Theological Class of 1838. He still survives, a 
citizen and minister of Oregon. 

These missionary families were able to do very 
little for the Indians, because they could not follow 
them in their wanderings ; but they were pioneers 
in carrying Christian civilization to those remote 
lands, and made at length comfortable homes for 
themselves and their children. 

In 1 841 two young men, students of Oberlin, took 
appointments from the American Board, and went 
with their wives as missionaries to the Cherokee 
Nation, in the Indian Territory, where they spent 
some years as teachers. 

Early in 1843 several students had become inter- 
ested in the Indians of the remote north-west — the 
Ojibwas, about the head-waters of the Mississippi. 
The American Board had a few missionaries in that 
region, and these young men made application for 
appointments to that mission. But the Board was 
not then prepared to extend the work in that direc- 
tion. Accordingly, on the 15th of June of that year, 
at a meeting of the Western Reserve Association of 
Congregational Churches, held at Akron, upon the 
representation of these young men the "Western 
Evangelical Missionary Society" was organized, and 



142 OB E KLIN. ' 

within two weeks ten missionaries, men and women, 
were on their way to their distant field. There is 
probably no missionary field to-day, on the face of 
the earth, more difficult to reach than this was at 
the time. There were two different routes, present- 
ing about equal difficulties. One was by the lakes 
to the most western point of Lake Superior, known 
as Fond du Lac, and then by an overland journey 
of several weeks on a trail made by fur-traders, 
through swamps and along streams and lakes, by 
canoe and by portage, exposed to insatiate swarms 
of mosquitos, not to speak of beasts of prey which 
were abundant but far less formidable, to a group of 
lakes in the northern part of what is now Minnesota, 
— Leech Lake, Cass Lake, and Red Lake, — around 
which the Ojibwas were gathered. The other route 
was by the Mississippi, which was reached either by 
Cincinnati and the Ohio River, or by the lakes to 
Chicago, and an overland journey to Galena. The 
Mississippi was navigable, in some form, to Crow 
Wing, a little below where the Northern Pacific Rail- 
road now crosses. Then followed the tedious succes- 
sion of swamps and lakes and streams and portages, 
to the group of lakes already named. More than 
twenty in all went out to this mission. The names 
most naturally recalled, as connected with the mis- 
sion, are Bardwell, Barnard, Wright, Spencer/ Lewis, 
Adams, Coe, Fisher, and Johnson. 

The work was carried forward through a period 
of sixteen years, until 1859, when it was discon- 
tinued in consequence of the breaking in of the ad- 
vancing tide of emigration upon the region. The 



EARLY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY. 143 

United States Government still provides for schools 
and other work of civilization on the Indian reserva- 
tions in the same region, and Rev. S. G. Wright, 
one of the missionaries in the first company sent 
out in 1843, i s stn1 l at work among the Indians at 
his old station, Leech Lake. 

The hardships of the work were more than usually 
fall to the lot of missionaries. In that high latitude 
the productive part of the season was brief, and the 
winter was long and terrible. The Indians had no 
permanent dwelling-place, but cultivated a little 
land in one place, made sugar in another, and hunted 
and fished in another; and their teachers were com- 
pelled sometimes to make a journey of five hundred 
miles in the winter, that they might not be separated 
from their flock. Then the Western Evangelical 
Missionary Society was often short of funds, and it 
was very difficult and expensive to forward supplies 
to the mission. Thus the missionaries were thrown 
greatly upon their own resources. They must raise 
their own provisions, saw their own lumber by hand, 
build their own houses, and help the Indians do all 
these things for themselves. Sometimes, to avert 
starvation, they were obliged, in the dead of winter, 
to make an expedition with oxen and sledges to the 
Selkirk settlement, four hundred miles to the north. 
They were obliged to see their provisions stolen and 
their cattle killed by starving Indians, and some- 
times to divide their last potatoes with them. Yet 
there w r ere compensations in the wonderful trans- 
formations of character witnessed in individual cases, 
numbers dying in hope in the new light which had 



144 BERLIN. 

come to their darkened souls, and in the general ad- 
vancement toward a settled and civilized life. 

Amid all their hardships the missionaries generally 
came through without breaking down in health. 
Mrs. Barnard died at her post, and Mrs. Spencer 
was shot through the window of her cabin at night, 
by a roving band of Indians on the war-path ; but 
the work of her life is continued by her daughter, 
Miss Charlotte D. Spencer, a missionary of the 
American Board in Turkey, and her son, David B. 
Spencer, a preacher of the Gospel in Ohio. Forty 
years have passed since these missionaries went out 
into the wilderness. Slavery has been blotted out 
within that period, but the problem of civilizing the 
Indians is still before us. 

In 1846 a convention of the " Friends of Bible 
Missions" met at Albany, N. Y., and organized the 
" American Missionary Association," to take the 
place and work of three organizations then existing 
— the West Indian Committee of New York, the 
Union Missionary Society of Hartford, and the 
Western Evangelical Missionary Society of Ober- 
lin. Mr. Lewis Tappan was elected treasurer of 
the new society, and the office of corresponding sec- 
retary was filled the next year by the appointment 
of Prof. George Whipple, of Oberlin College, a mem- 
ber of the first theological class from Lane. He 
held the place until his death in 1876 — almost thirty 
years. 

In 1864, on account of the great extension of the 
work of the society by reason of emancipation, Rev. 
M. E. Strieby, of the college and theological classes 



EARLY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY. I45 

of 1838 and 1 841 at Oberlin, pastor at the time at 
Syracuse, N. Y., was elected as the associate of Mr. 
Whipple, and under their joint administration the 
great work in the Southern field has been carried 
forward. Oberlin students have been connected 
with this work in large numbers, as preachers, and 
as teachers both in elementary schools in city and 
country, and in the institutions for higher education, 
such as Berea College, Ky. ; Fisk University, Nash- 
ville, Tenn. ; Talladega College, Ala. ; Atlanta Uni- 
versity, Ga. ; Straight University, New Orleans, La. ; 
Emerson Institute, Mobile, Al. ; Howard University, 
Washington, D. C. ; and other similar schools for the 
colored people. 

Such enterprises as these absorbed for many years 
the missionary activity of Oberlin men and women , 
and it is only within the last few years that the work 
of the American Board has come distinctly before 
them in such a way as to enlist their interest and 
command their service. During all the years there 
have been individual cases of young men and young 
women entering the service of the Board in different 
foreign fields, as Turkey in Europe and in Asia, 
India, Siam, China, Japan, South Africa, the Sand- 
wich Islands, and Micronesia. Some, too, have en- 
gaged in foreign missionary work in connection with 
other societies in different parts of South America, 
in Hayti, in India, and in Burmah. 

Within the last two years there has been a re- 
vival of interest among our students in the foreign 
work, and six have gone to South Africa, four to 
West Africa, two to India, and seven to China. 



146 BERLIN. 

These seven that have gone to China are the pio- 
neers of what is called the " Oberlin China Band," 
to whom the province of Shansi has been assigned 
by the Board as a special field. 

The great body of the young men that went out 
from Oberlin to preach in the early days went as 
home missionaries — with this exception, that they 
looked to no society to aid the churches in paying 
their salaries. It was not difficult for them to find 
needy churches to welcome them. Such churches 
were numerous in Western New York, in Northern 
Ohio, in Michigan, in Northern Illinois, and to some 
extent in New England. A few of the stronger 
churches were open to Oberlin ministers ; but for 
the most part they were the weaker churches — such 
as at that time, and at the present, would look for 
home-missionary aid. But such aid came only 
through the advice and recommendation of com- 
mittees of associations and presbyteries — under the 
Plan of Union, chiefly presbyteries ; and such was 
the prevalent ignorance and apprehension in regard 
to Oberlin men, that the most they could look for 
was the privilege of working in some needy field 
without molestation. Thus each man was obliged 
to find a place for himself, and slowly secure recog- 
nition. To give an illustration of the general sus- 
picion : in 1842 the Presbytery of Richland, fifty 
miles from Oberlin, sent up as an overture to the 
Synod of Ohio the inquiry, " Is baptism, adminis- 
tered by the preachers of the Oberlin Association, 
to be regarded as valid ?" This inquiry was referred 
to an able committee, who reported in substance 



EARLY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY, 1 47 

that " as the efficacy of Christian ordinances does 
not depend on the character of those who adminis- 
ter them, but on the grace of Christ," so their valid- 
ity does not depend on the character of the admin- 
istrator. The report went on to speak of the errors 
of the Oberlin Association as exceedingly danger- 
ous and corrupting, and urged that "these preach- 
ers should not be received by the churches as ortho- 
dox ministers, nor their members be admitted to 
communion." An animated discussion upon this 
report followed, but finally the opinion prevailed 
" that Oberlinism was not yet sufficiently developed 
to justify the synod in coming to a decision on this 
important question," and the report was laid on the 
table. At this time the Oberlin Evangelist had been 
published four years, and Oberlin preachers and 
teachers were well scattered over the State. 

Under these conditions Oberlin men found their 
work and waited for a brighter day. Some would 
make their way with little difficulty, and soon found 
a warm welcome — and this was the more frequent 
result. Others were less favored, and had some- 
what trying experiences before presbyteries and 
councils. A year or two of self-denying and effi- 
cient labor with some needy church, without aid, was 
the usual probation to a recognized ministerial 
standing. Thus the work of the early Oberlin 
preachers was mainly missionary work in the weak 
churches and in the newer regions, where there was 
abundant room. Theological students going out to 
preach during the long vacation, found no home- 
missionary society to guide them to open doors and 



148 OBERLIN. 

to secure them compensation for the service. They 
went where the preaching seemed to be needed, 
and often returned to the seminary as empty-handed 
as they went, except for the friendship and gratitude 
of those to whom they had carried the word of the 
Gospel. They were manual-labor students, and 
could make their way through another year of study. 
The situation had its advantages. The Oberlin man 
secured a theological standing of his own — a birth- 
right of liberty. No one was responsible for his or- 
thodoxy. If he talked like the Westminster Confes- 
sion, it was a surprise and a satisfaction. If he did 
not, it was only what was to be expected, and at all 
events he must have the privilege of talking in his 
own way. This freedom may have come at a heavy 
price, but it was worth the having. 

In educational work there was a similar mission- 
ary enterprise. The common schools of Ohio at 
that time generally afforded two terms of instruc- 
tion in the year, called the summer and the winter 
school. In the more favored communities, these 
continued four months each ; in others, but three. 
The manual-labor arrangement at Oberlin made it 
necessary that the college should continue in session 
during the summer, and have its long vacation in 
the winter. The winter schools through the coun- 
try called for young men as teachers. Thus the 
way opened for large numbers of the students to 
find employment in teaching. The intense prejudice 
against Oberlin, so widely diffused, was an obstacle 
in the way ; but before this prejudice was fully estab- 
lished, Oberlin teachers had made a reputation for 



EARLY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY. 1 49 

themselves and their successors, and a place from 
which the growing prejudice could not exclude them. 
There were dark places to which they found no ac- 
cess. In only rare instances did they pass " Mason 
and Dixon's Line ;" and students from other parts, 
going over into Kentucky to find schools, were 
sometimes confronted with an Oberlin catalogue, 
which the people kept for their own protection. 
The majority of Oberlin students, young men and 
young women, during the first forty years, taught 
in these schools more or less during their course. 
At one time, when statistics were taken, it was 
found that five hundred and thirty students went 
out to teach in a single year. These teachers not 
only earned the means to sustain themselves in 
their study, and supplied the great want of compe- 
tent teachers; they were also bearers of a whole- 
some and elevating influence wherever they went, 
inculcating the principles of temperance, morality, 
and religion, and leaving a leaven of antislavery 
sentiment in the communities which they visited. 
They were also a recruiting force for the school from 
which they went out ; and thus, through all the years 
of obloquy and reproach, the number of students 
was constantly sustained. 

There were special educational enterprises of a 
missionary character, in which the colony shared 
with the college. The first of these was led by Mr. 
Shipherd himself, who had laid the foundations 
here, and had a longing to continue work of the 
kind. In providing men for Oberlin, the church and 



ISO OBERLIN. 

the college, he had not been careful to reserve a 
place for himself, and thus, after ten years, while 
still a young man, he found himself, with improved 
health, free from responsibility in the college ex- 
cept as a trustee. Having occasion, in the au- 
tumn of 1843, to P ass through the State of Michi- 
gan, his mind occupied with the thought of another 
Oberlin, he chanced upon a place in Eaton County 
that impressed him as possibly the appointed field. 
After spending the night at a cabin in the neighbor- 
hood, he went on his way. On his return, intend- 
ing to take a different road, by mistake he came 
back to the same locality, and spent another night. 
Returning to Oberlin, he gathered a few of the men 
who had joined the Oberlin colony upon his invi- 
tation, and proposed to them the new enterprise. 
After some weeks of deliberation and prayer, in the 
spring of 1844, Mr. Shipherd took his wife and six 
boys into a wagon, with such household goods as 
could be readily transported, with a young man or 
two to drive his cows and sheep, and made his way 
overland to the new wilderness home. A half-dozen 
families from Oberlin followed, and two young men, 
graduates of the preceding year, Reuben Hatch 
and Oramel Hosford, joined them as teachers; and 
thus the foundations of the town and the college of 
Olivet, in Michigan, were laid. 

The new settlement had its experiences of hard- 
ship and trial. The breaking up of new lands, and 
the flooding of other lands for a mill site, brought 
sickness to many, especially to Mr. Shipherd and his 



EARL Y MISSION A R V A CTIVIT Y. 1 5 I 

family, and in September Mr. Shipherd died. It 
was a sad blow to the enterprise, but there was 
no looking back. The work went on, and after 
many days, and through many trials, prosperity 
came. 

One of the young men especially, who left his 
studies at Oberlin to help Mr. Shipherd and his 
family on their journey, Albertus Green, from Lan- 
caster, N.Y., proved himself a most enterprising and 
efficient business manager ; and the little commun- 
ity again and again assessed upon themselves the cost 
of some new extension' or addition to the advantages 
of the college, thus proved their vitality, and secured 
the confidence of the people of the State. For 
many years they drew their teachers almost wholly 
from Oberlin, but at length they could call men from 
Eastern colleges, and have now reached the stage 
where they find satisfactory professors among their 
own alumni. 

A few families went out from Oberlin to South- 
western Iowa, in 1848, with the purpose of estab- 
lishing a Christian settlement and Christian institu- 
tions in advance of the tide of emigration which was 
turning in that direction. They first settled upon 
the Missouri bottom, a few miles north of the State 
line. They had no minister, and only at rare inter- 
vals preaching of any kind ; but they maintained re- 
ligious meetings and a Sabbath-school, organized a 
temperance society, and sought the co-operation of 
their neighbors. These neighbors were interested in 
the new style of immigrants, and to express their 



152 OBERLIK. 

appreciation, called the little settlement by the river 
side " Civil Bend." 

These families drew others from Oberlin and the 
neighborhood, and among them Rev. John Todd, 
who had graduated at Oberlin, and was then pastor 
of the church at Clarksfield, Huron Co. These 
joined the colony in 185 1. Meanwhile it had been 
discovered that the Missouri River bottom was too 
uncertain and unstable a foundation for a town, and 
the colony of Civil Bend found a new site fifteen 
miles away, on the bluff, and called it Tabor. Here 
the germ of Tabor College was planted, and has 
proved its vitality by a slow but steady growth dur- 
ing thirty years, under a heavy pressure of difficul- 
ties and embarrassments. The faith and courage 
and self-sacrifice of the surrounding community have 
saved it in one crisis after another, until now the day 
of its prosperity seems to have come. All these years 
it has been a fountain of educational and spiritual 
forces to a wide district of country. The families 
that have sustained it, by their faith and their con- 
tributions, were mainly of the original colony from 
Oberlin, and the instructors that have labored in 
hope, and given their lives to the work, have been 
Oberlin graduates. 

Oberlin students have aided in the establishment 
of many other Western schools and colleges, among 
them Hillsdale College, Michigan ; Ripon College, 
Wisconsin; Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa; Drury 
College, Springfield, Missouri; and Carleton College, 
Northfield, Minnesota ; not to mention again the 



EARL Y MISSION A R Y A CTI FIT Y. I 5 3 

schools at the South already referred to. The im- 
pulse of a new college, growing from small begin- 
nings, has seemed to impress many Oberlin students, 
and they have gone forth with the thought of under- 
taking a similar enterprise. Such an impulse would 
scarcely be felt among the students of an old and 
fully equipped college. It comes where college- 
building is a part of the education. 



CHAPTER VII. 

OBERLIN IN THE WAR. 

THE conflict which Oberlin had waged with slav- 
ery was essentially a moral one — a conflict of ideas 
and principles. The purpose was to diffuse abroad 
correct ideas as to the wrongfulness and unprofitable- 
ness of slavery, in the full expectation that in the 
end the truth would prevail, and slavery would give 
way before it. The example of emancipation in the 
West Indies was naturally accepted as an illustration 
of what it was reasonable to expect. Thus, from 
time to time, instances appeared in our own country 
of individual slave-owners who had become dissatis- 
fied with their position, and under great difficulties 
and at great expense had set free their slaves. It 
was thought that all that was necessary was to con- 
tinue this moral pressure, and slavery would at length 
yield to the power of truth. There was more or less 
apprehension of violence and bloodshed, but it was 
supposed that this would arise between the slaves 
and their masters, in the form of insurrections and 
repressions. No emancipation was thought to be 
desirable which did not involve the consent and co- 
operation of the holders of the slaves— not that the 
rights of slaveholders were of any special force, but 
because there could be no satisfactory result without 
such co-operation. 



OBERLIN IN THE WAR. 1 55 

In the early days of the antislavery movement 
there was a very sanguine expectation of rapid prog- 
ress in this moral revolution, and the people of 
Oberlin shared in the hope. Occasionally one would 
make a journey through the Southern States, and 
return with his views greatly changed as to the hope- 
fulness of the prospect. The entire civilization of 
the South rested on slavery, and all investigation or 
inquiry or discussion upon the wrongfulness of the 
system was effectually precluded. Such was the 
impression from the inside view. But to the average 
antislavery man it seemed impossible that slavery 
should survive the growing agitation which would 
at length bring to bear upon it the protest of the 
civilized world. A conversation is recalled which 
took place at an Oberlin tea-table, about the year 
1840. A young man asked of Father Keep, who was 
present, how long a time he thought would pass be- 
fore slavery would come to an end. " About twenty 
years," was his deliberate answer ; and no one pres- 
ent seemed to think the expectation unreasonable. 
It is true that after twenty years the end was just at 
hand ; but to human apprehension it was no nearer 
than twenty years before. 

But while " the irrepressible conflict" was thus re- 
garded as a moral one, it was not the teaching nor 
the practice at Oberlin to omit any opportunity of 
effective testimony or action against slavery, social 
or political or religious. All that was required was 
that the action should be in harmony with Christian 
principle, and should have some probable bearing 
upon the end to be attained. The monthly concert 



156 OBERLIJV. 

of prayer for the termination of slavery was main- 
tained for many years. The fugitive from slavery 
was sheltered, and helped on his way ; not only as a 
service to him personally, but because such an escape 
was believed to have a wholesome reaction upon 
public sentiment at the North and at the South. 
The idea of maintaining a testimony by abstaining 
from the use of the products of slave-labor, such as 
sugar and cotton, obtained only a slender and very 
brief following. The more practical view was that 
the money expended for the maintenance of the 
principle could be used more wisely in direct action 
upon public sentiment. 

The extreme doctrine of " non-resistance," which 
pervaded antislavery circles quite extensively, was 
never prevalent at Oberlin. The right to repel by 
force injustice and outrage, under proper conditions, 
was vindicated in the Oberlin philosophy, and main- 
tained as a practical principle ; but there was no ex- 
pectation that the antislavery struggle would afford 
occasion for any general application of the principle. 
The most that was apprehended was that the violent 
measures of slave-catchers, who invaded the com- 
munity, might some time call for the defence of 
property, or liberty, or life ; and a patrol was some- 
times organized to guard the community from such 
invasions^ A proposal to operate, in either an open 
or clandestine way, upon slave territory, for the re- 
lease of slaves, was never regarded with favor. The 
effort would bring danger and violence, without use- 
ful result. 

When, in 1854, Congress declared the Missouri 



OBERLIN IN THE WAR. !$7 

Compromise act " inoperative and void," in relation 
to Kansas and Nebraska, the people of Oberlin, in 
common with many communities at the North, were 
profoundly moved. They organized an emigrant-aid 
society, and sent forward several companies of emi- 
grants from Oberlin and the surrounding country, to 
pre-empt Kansas as a free State. These emigrants 
went prepared for the rough times of the " border- 
ruffian" war that followed, and helped to organize 
Kansas as a free State. Several Oberlin ministers 
were on the ground through all the conflict, and 
were sometimes driven from their homes and hunted 
like wild beasts over the prairie. But the day was 
won at length, and Kansas came forth one of the 
most prosperous and progressive of the free States. 

John Brown, of Harper's Ferry, was not a stranger 
at Oberlin. His father was a trustee of the college 
as early as 1835. His younger brothers and a sister 
were students here, and he himself had rendered ser- 
vice in the survey of lands belonging to the college 
in Western Virginia. He was more or less associated 
with Oberlin men in Kansas ; but his raid at Harper's 
Ferry was as great a surprise to the people of Ober- 
lin generally as to any other community in the land. 
Two young colored men from Oberlin were with 
Brown's company, one of whom, Leary, was killed in 
the fight, and the other, John Copeland, died on the 
gallows a few days after his leader. 

It was not unnatural that, in pro-slavery circles, 
Oberlin men should be suspected of complicity in 
the affair at Harper's Ferry. The following extract 
from The Pennsylvania)!, of Philadelphia, gives the 



158 BERLIN. 

average Democratic impression of that day: " Ober- 
lin is located in the very heart of what may be called 
' John Brown's tract,' where people are born aboli- 
tionists, and where abolitionism is taught as the 
'chief end of man,' and often put in practice. . . . 
Oberlin is the nursery of just such men as John 
Brown and his followers. With arithmetic is taught 
the computation of the number of slaves and their 
value per head ; with geography, territorial lines, 
and those localities of slave territory supposed to be 
favorable to emancipation ; with history, the chroni- 
cles of the peculiar institution ; and with ethics and 
philosophy, the ' higher law ' and resistance to Fed- 
eral enactments. Here is where the younger Browns 
obtain their conscientiousness in ultraisms, taught 
from their cradle up, so that while they rob slave- 
holders of their property, or commit murder for the 
cause of freedom, they imagine that they are doing 
God service." 

The actual, responsible sentiment of Oberlin men 
is expressed in the following extract from an editorial 
in the Oberlin Evangelist upon the Harper's Ferry 
tragedy: "We object to such intervention, not be- 
cause the slave-power has any rights which man- 
kind, white or black, are bound to respect, and not 
therefore because it is properly a moral wrong to 
deliver the oppressed from the grasp of the oppressor ; 
but entirely for other reasons. We long to see 
slavery abolished by peaceful means, and as a demand 
of conscience, under the law of rightousness, which 
is the law of God. Such a result would be at once 
glorious to Christianity, and blessed to both slave- 



OBERLIN IN THE WAR. 1 59 

holders and slaves. It is especially because an armed 
intervention frustrates this form of pacific, reforma- 
tory agency, that we disapprove and deplore it. 
Perhaps the day of hope in moral influence for the 
abolition of slavery is past already ; we cannot tell. 
If so, it is a satisfaction to us to be conscious of not 
having unwisely precipitated its setting sun. If a 
mad infatuation has fallen upon Southern mind, and 
they will not hear the demands of justice, nor the 
admonitions of kindness, let the responsibility rest 
where it belongs. We would not have it so. ' We 
have not desired the woful day, O Lord, thou 
knowest.' " 

But the woful day was hastening on, and Oberlin 
was to have its full share of responsibility and sacri- 
fice. Fort Sumter was surrendered April 13, 1861. 
The call of the President for seventy-five thousand vol- 
unteers followed, and the question of responding to 
the call came before the students of Oberlin. Friday 
evening, April 19, they held a meeting in the college 
chapel, where members of the different classes ap- 
pealed to their fellows to rally to the defence of the 
Union, and committees were appointed to receive 
the names of volunteers. The next evening a meet- 
ing was called in the church, which was addressed by 
Professor Monroe, who was at the time a member of 
the Ohio Senate, and had returned from Columbus 
to stir up the students and people of Oberlin to the 
duty of the hour. The roll was laid upon the desk, 
open to enlistments, and a large number rushed at 
once upon the platform, and entered their names. 
The company was half filled that evening, ten thou- 



OBERLW. 

sand dollars were pledged to furnish and sustain the 
volunteers, and the people retired to ponder the ques- 
tion of duty during the hours of the Sabbath. It 
was a time of solemn and absorbing interest. In 
many rooms there were gatherings for prayer during 
the day, and there were many consecrations to the 
service of God and the country. The term of en- 
listment was for three months, but those who closed 
their books, and turned from the recitation-room to 
the tented field, in general regarded themselves as 
enrolled for the war. 

Numbers sent in their names before the close of 
the Sabbath, lest there should be no room for them 
if they waited until Monday. These were not mere 
boys who acted from the impulse of the hour; they 
were serious, mature young men, from all depart- 
ments of the college, who had their cherished plans 
of life, and had pursued them through years of 
toil and study. They could not drop these plans, 
distinctly apprehending that they might never re- 
sume them, without earnest self-inquiry, and solemn 
thought. Oberlin has witnessed during its history 
many memorable Sabbaths, probably few that left a 
deeper impression upon character than this. 

Monday morning found one hundred and thirty 
names enrolled, while it was supposed that only 
eighty-one could be accepted. The faculty of the 
college did not feel at liberty to encourage enlist- 
ments. They maintained a conservative position, 
restraining the ardor of the impulsive, and requir- 
ing all under twenty-one years of age to wait the 
approval of parents or guardians. It was soon as- 



BERLIN IN THE WAR. l6l 

certained that a single company of one hundred 
members would be accepted from Oberlin, and this 
was organized, and furnished with such an outfit as 
could be provided in two days, in a country town. 
For these two days the college exercises were sus- 
pended, and the lecture-rooms were occupied with 
groups of women, from the college and the town, in 
the preparation of such articles as soldiers were sup- 
posed to need, not omitting the sadly suggestive work 
of scraping lint. Teachers of literature and science 
were at a discount, and every old man who had seen 
a squad of soldiers on the march or in bivouac was 
brought to the front. Thus, with very meagre re- 
sources, was commenced that education in the ideas 
and facts of warfare, which was to continue through 
a period of four years, until every detail of military 
life and movement became familiar, even to children. 
There was a vigorous and rapid growth in the 
virtue of patriotism. Less than two years had 
elapsed since Oberlin, with its antislavery ideas and 
practices, had been in conflict with the general gov- 
ernment, and numbers of citizens and students had 
gone to prison under its authority. There had been 
no enthusiasm for the flag: it was the symbol of op- 
pression. An antislavery man had found it difficult, 
for many years, to maintain his loyalty. He could 
rejoice in his country, but his chief interest in the 
government was in the hope and purpose that it 
should one day be redeemed from its degradation. 
Now all was changed. Lincoln, the representative of 
freedom, was at the head, and slavery was in rebel- 
lion against the government. Oberlin men did not 



1 62 BERLIN. 

stop to ascertain what was to be the outcome of the 
war, in regard to slavery. They saw that, standing 
with the government, they would be on the side of 
liberty against slavery, and they could not hesitate. 
Whatever the result, freedom must gain, and slavery 
must lose, in the conflict. There was a very general 
conviction that slavery must go down in the struggle, 
whatever might be the ostensible policy of the gov- 
ernment. Thus the loyalty of the people, which 
had been suppressed or overborne for years, at once 
found free scope, and the national flag was thrown 
aloft. Oberlin fairly blossomed out with the stars 
and stripes, and it was a great relief to know that 
these were the symbols of righteousness and liberty, 
and not of oppression. 

Two days of preparation sufficed to provide the 
young men their uniforms and general outfit, and on 
Thursday, April 25th, the company were attended to 
the railroad station by almost the entire population 
of the town. Amid various demonstrations, and sad 
farewells, they took the train for Cleveland, where 
they went into Camp Taylor, and became Company 
C, of the Seventh Regiment of Ohio Volunteer In- 
fantry. Its captain, G. W. Shurtleff, was a member 
of the theological school and tutor in Latin, and a 
large majority of the members were students. A 
few were young men from the town. The company 
remained at Camp Taylor about ten days, waiting 
for orders, and during this time received many visits 
from friends at Oberlin. On the 5th of May, their 
regiment was ordered to Camp Dennison, near Cin- 
cinnati. Here they built their first barracks, and 



OBERLIN IN THE WAR. 1 63 

continued in drill and general discipline until the 
26th of June. Here, too, they came to be known as 
" the praying company." Each mess had its chaplain, 
who was responsible for a service of daily family 
worship. A daily prayer-meeting was established 
by the company, usually held in the open spaces be- 
tween the barracks, to which members of other com- 
panies were frequently attracted. The daily family 
service was maintained in most of the messes during 
their entire connection with the army, a period of 
more than three years. Such peculiarities exposed 
them at first to sneering remark, implying an ex- 
pectation that they would fail in the sterner work 
of the soldier's life ; but after the first few marches 
and the first battle, these remarks lost their point, 
and were no longer heard. 

The enlistment thus far was for three months — a 
time scarcely sufficient, at the beginning of the war, 
to bring untrained men into the field. At Camp 
Dennison the question of enlistment for three years 
was brought before the company, on the 23d of 
May. If any of them had acted from impulse or 
the spirit of adventure, the two months had given 
them time to cool. The rough experience of the 
camp had given them a better understanding of a 
soldier's life, even without the sight of the battle- 
field. A portion of the company decided that duty 
did not call them to this further sacrifice ; but the 
large majority accepted the call, and turned away 
from their classes and their books, with little pros- 
pect of ever returning to them. The company was 
soon filled, by other volunteers, to a maximum, and 



164 BERLIN. 

retained the officers with which it was first organ- 
ized. 

It was natural that this first company sent out 
should be followed with special interest by the peo- 
ple of Oberlin. Other companies went out, and 
many others, students and citizens, volunteered; but 
Company C was the first contribution of Oberlin to 
the war, and had the first experience of its hard- 
ships. 

The Seventh Ohio was ordered from Camp Den- 
nison to Western Virginia on the 26th of June, and 
then began, for Company C, the marches and the 
battles, which continued until they were mustered 
out of service, at Cleveland, just three years later. 

The company first came under fire at Cross Lanes, 
in Western Virginia, where the Seventh Regiment 
was surprised by a large force of the enemy ; and for 
a time Company C stood alone, unsupported, and 
without any field officer, until they were at last com- 
pelled to retreat, leaving five of their number se- 
verely wounded on the field, two mortally wounded, 
and two uninjured to look after them. In their re- 
treat through the woods they fell in with a regiment 
of the enemy, and the captain and those near the 
head of the company, twenty-nine in all, were taken 
prisoners. The rear of the company was saved 
from this misfortune by the rather unmilitary order 
of the lieutenant, E. H. Baker, " Skedaddle, boys." 
Thus in the first encounter with the enemy the com- 
pany was sadly broken, and was never entirely re- 
united. The prisoners were first marched one hun- 
dred miles with their elbows tied together behind 






O BERLIN IN THE WAR. 1 65 

their backs, and were then taken by rail to Rich- 
mond, Va., where they were confined in the some- 
what famous tobacco factory. The captain was 
here separated from his company, and spent a year 
in various Southern prisons, at Richmond, Salisbury, 
Charleston, and Columbia. After exchange in 
September, 1862, he was placed on the staff of Gen- 
eral Wilcox, and passed through the battle of Fred- 
ericksburg ; was soon after commissioned as Colonel 
of the 5th U. S. Colored Troops, and fought with 
them through the remainder of the war in the 
trenches before Petersburg, in June, July, and Au- 
gust, 1864, and at New Market, Va., where he lost 
nearly half his regiment, and was himself severely 
wounded ; and was honorably discharged at the close 
of the war as brevet brigadier-general. Many of the 
officers of his regiment were young men who had 
been his friends and fellow-students at Oberlin. 

The rest of the prisoners from Company C were 
soon taken in open cars, through the whole length of 
the Confederacy, to New Orleans, where they were 
placed in the parish prison, without any care for their 
clothing, and a very inadequate supply of food ; and 
at night they were thrust together into a cell, without 
blankets or any bedding, where only half could lie 
down at once, while the other half sat upon the stone 
floor, leaning against the wall, a small opening in the 
door and a smaller opening in a flue in the wall, 
being the only arrangements for ventilation. Their 
Yankee ingenuity enabled them to add to their re- 
sources by the manufacture of various trinkets, rings, 
watch-chains, crosses, and pen-holders, from the bones 



1 66 O BERLIN. 

which came, in ample proportion, with their allow- 
ance of meat. By the sale of these they supplied 
their more pressing wants. The more studious 
among them pursued their French, German, Greek, 
or Theology. A " Union Lyceum" was organized, 
a semi-monthly paper, " The Stars and Stripes," 
issued, and prayer-meetings and Bible-classes were 
maintained. Two of their number died in this 
prison, of typhoid fever. They remained there from 
October, 1861, to February, 1862, about five months, 
when they were removed to the prison at Salisbury, 
N. C., where they were kept until near the end of 
May ; when, after taking the oath not to bear arms 
against the Confederacy until regularly exchanged, 
they were sent down the Tar River under a flag of 
truce, and were placed on board a Union steamer, 
over which floated the Stars and Stripes. As they 
stepped upon the deck it is reported that " they 
danced and wept, and even kissed the mute folds 
of those loved colors." Some of them were dis- 
charged as not fit for further duty, and the rest, 
after exchange, reported themselves to their com- 
pany, and served out the three years of their enlist- 
ment. Little was heard at Oberlin of these men 
during their captivity. A few scraps of intelligence 
came by roundabout methods, and occasionally a 
letter on tissue paper came through, packed under the 
covering of a brass button on the uniform of a soldier 
who, for some reason, was sent through the lines. 

The news of the battle and disaster at Cross 
Lanes reached Oberlin in the midst of the com- 
mencement exercises, and gave a sad interest to the 



BERLIN IN THE WAR. \6j 

occasion. The programme that day bore the names 
of twenty-nine members of the Senior Class, nine of 
them marked with a star referring to a marginal 
note, " In the Federal Army." These nine received 
their degree with the rest ; but Burford Jeakins was 
lying, mortally wounded, on the field, and Wm. W. 
Parmenter died soon after in the prison at New Or- 
leans. 

The portion of the company remaining from the 
Cross Lanes disaster, more than two thirds of the 
whole, soon rallied, reorganized by the appointment 
of officers in the place of those lost, and had their 
numbers at length replenished by the enlistment of 
recruits, in part from Oberlin, and in part from other 
sources. 

During the remaining years of the war, they held on 
their way, leaving their dead on many a hard-fought 
field, marching twenty-four hundred miles, and car- 
ried by rail and by steamer forty-eight hundred more. 
Among their battle-fields are Winchester, Port Re- 
public, Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville, Antietam, 
Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, 
Ringgold, and Resaca. During these three years 
one hundred and fifty students were at various 
times members of Company C. Of these, only three 
died from disease, two of the three from typhoid in 
the prison at New Orleans. Twenty-eight fell in 
battle, and fifteen were discharged on account of 
serious wounds. That their sound principles and 
temperate habits had much to do in securing their 
freedom from disease, and their power of endurance, 
there can be no reasonable question. Of their 



1 68 OB E KLIN. 

fidelity to the principles with which they enlisted, 
Prof. J. M. Ellis, of the college, after a visit to the 
camp, thus testified : " When their ranks had been 
thinned by capture and death, and they had passed 
through all the corrupting tendencies and tempta- 
tions of their new life for a year, surrounded with 
godless men and officers on every side, I saw them 
in their tents in the heart of Virginia ; and nightly 
from the six tents of Company C went up the voice 
of song and of prayer, as they bowed themselves 
around their family altars. It was a strange sound 
in a camp of thirty thousand men. They were 
known as the ' praying company,' and the fame of 
their meetings was spread through all that army." 

But Company C was not the only contribution 
of Oberlin to the war. A company from Oberlin 
joined the 41st O. V. I. ; and about the same time, 
a considerable number of students and citizens 
joined the Second Ohio Cavalry, and followed the 
line of war from the Mississippi to the Indian Terri- 
tory, and back through the whole length of the Con- 
federacy to Danville, Va., and still back again to 
the western border of Missouri. One of these, A. 
B. Nettleton, rose from the rank of a private to the 
command of his regiment, fought under Sheridan 
the campaigns of the Shenandoah, and helped win 
the final victory at Five Forks. 

In 1862, another company went from Oberlin to 
join the 103d O. V. I. Its captain, P. C. Hayes, 
was a graduate of the college, and a member of the 
Theological School. He soon rose to the command 
of his regiment, and at length became Provost-Gen- 



OB E KLIN IN THE WAR. 1 69 

eral of Schofield's army, with his regiment as guard. 
The same year, when Cincinnati was threatened by 
Kirby Smith's army, and the " Squirrel Hunters" 
were called out, our recitation-rooms were given up 
almost wholly to the young women, while the young 
men, upon a few hours' notice, rushed with such 
arms and ammunition and provisions as they could 
gather up, to the point of danger. When the dan- 
ger was past they returned to resume their work. 
For this service there was no compensation — only 
the approval of the authorities of the State, and the 
Squirrel Hunter's diploma. The same year, when 
Washington was in danger, a company of "three- 
months men" went from Oberlin directly to the 
" front," held several posts to relieve veterans, 
shared in various skirmishes, and at last were in- 
volved in the surrender by Gen. Miles at Harper's 
Ferry. In 1864, when Gen. Grant was concentrat- 
ing all his forces upon Richmond, and Ohio sent, 
within the space of two weeks, forty regiments of 
" hundred-days men" into the field, Oberlin sent a 
second " Company C " to the 150th Regiment ; and 
though in general these short-time soldiers were 
sent to garrison forts, that veterans might be sent 
forward to the front, this company, occupying the 
fortifications near Washington, had a taste of actual 
warfare, in repelling Gen. Early's movement upon 
the city. 

Numbers of young men in the college went to 
their homes in this and other States, and enlisted 
there, to help make out the quotas for their own 
towns. Thus it was difficult to determine how 



I/O OB E RUN. 

many of our students were in the army, or to follow 
their fortunes. The alumni of the college, scattered 
through the land, responded to the call of .the coun- 
try in the same spirit as the undergraduates. They 
went in command of companies and of regiments, 
many of them as chaplains, and some as privates. 
One, J. Dolson Cox, attained the rank of major- 
general. He went into the army from the Ohio 
Senate, at the first call, commissioned as brigadier- 
general ; took charge of the Department of Western 
Virginia, and held it to the Union ; led the Ninth 
Army Corps and the Twenty-third with McClellan 
and Burnside ; and fought through the Georgia and 
Tennessee campaigns with Sherman and Thomas. 

Taking graduates and undergraduates together, it 
was estimated that not less than eight hundred and 
fifty were in the army, at some time during the four 
years. The annual attendance of students was re- 
duced from thirteen hundred and thirteen in i860, 
to eight hundred and fifty-nine in 1862 — a loss of 
nearly thirty-five per cent. This loss, after the first 
year of the war, was wholly on the part of the young 
men. The number of young women was greater in 
1864 than in i860, and for the first time in the his- 
tory of the college they became the majority, while 
before they had been less than two fifths of the 
whole. The system of co-education thus helped to 
keep the college in good working order during these 
years, while so many young men were taking their 
discipline in the army. Still several classes were 
greatly demoralized, in the military sense of the 
word, by the loss of nearly half their numbers. 



OBERLIN IN THE WAR. I/I 

In the first excitements and anxieties of the war, 
the work of the class-room was maintained with 
some difficulty. The telegraph or the morning 
paper often brought news so distracting that neither 
teachers nor pupils could give their full strength to 
the work of the hour ; but at length all learned to 
possess their souls in patience. Still there were 
often sad interruptions, as when one who had fallen 
was brought back to be buried from among us — 
Danforth and Worcester from Winchester, Kenaston 
from Gettysburg, Ells from Washington, and others 
from other fields. There were also pleasant inter- 
ruptions when paroled prisoners came back after a 
year's captivity, almost as from the dead. 

The recreations of the students took on an unusual 
form. In the spring of 1861 they had built a gym- 
nasium on the campus, by voluntary contributions, 
and had called a teacher of gymnastics from the 
East, to inaugurate the new dispensation. Great en- 
thusiasm was shown in the exercises, but from the 
day of the fall of Fort Sumter, the gymnasium was 
deserted. The teacher returned to his own State to 
enlist in the army, and the students organized com- 
panies and practised the military drill instead of 
gymnastics. The gymnasium was sometimes utilized 
as an armory, but at length it became utterly deso- 
late, and before the close of the war was removed 
from the campus as a useless incumbrance. Two or 
three entire generations of students passed away be- 
fore any demand arose for a new gymnasium. 

Of those who went forth from Oberlin to the war, 
about one in ever)- ten never returned, and the 



172 OBERLIN. 

soldiers' monument, erected in 1870, bears the names 
of one hundred citizens and students who fell on the 
field, or died in prison or in hospital. A special sad- 
ness attaches to the memory of those who fell at the 
last hour, when all the dangers seemed to be past — 
of Tenney, of the Second Ohio Cavalry, who was 
killed by almost the last shell that exploded in the 
neighborhood of Richmond ; and of Trembley, mem- 
ber of Company C, who had fought in every battle, 
except one, in which his regiment had been engaged, 
and had suffered no harm. The time of his dis- 
charge had come ; he had written to his mother to 
dismiss her anxiety for him— that his fighting was 
over and he would soon be with her. On the deck 
of the steamer a few miles below Cincinnati his foot 
slipped and he was drowned. His comrades re- 
covered the body and bore it to his mother. 

When the war was finished, all show of military 
life at Oberlin disappeared. The experience of war 
had been too real and serious to leave any taste for 
its pastime or its pageantry. No military companies 
survived among the students, and no military drill 
was adopted as a college arrangement. The classes 
gradually filled up, the advanced classes more slowly 
than the others, and in 1873 the numbers in attend- 
ance were greater than when the war began. 




soldiers' monument, and old laboratory. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SPECIAL FEATURES: CO-EDUCATION— MANUAL 
LABOR — MUSIC. 

There are several features in which Oberlin has 
been distinguished from most of the older colleges, 
peculiarities which, to some extent, were in the 
original idea and plan, and which have given it a 
degree of notoriety, and sometimes of reputation. 
The most prominent of these is doubtless the princi- 
ple and practice of 

CO-EDUCATION. 

This word seems to have come into use within the 
last twenty years — an Americanism, made necessary 
by the existence of a special feature in the later 
American education, in which Oberlin was called to 
lead the way. Co-education, as far as schools for 
primary and secondary education are concerned, is 
not a modern arrangement. The common-school of 
New England has always brought boys and girls to- 
gether, except to a limited extent in cities and larger 
towns. The ordinary New England academy has 
involved the same arrangement ; and it was almost 
inevitable that the two original founders of Oberlin, 
who had received their education in such an academy, 
should embrace this arrangement in their ideal school. 



174 BERLIN. 

It does not appear that they regarded themselves 
as introducing any innovation, or any questionable 
principle. They did not realize that they were lay- 
ing the foundations of a college. Mr. Stewart dis- 
tinctly discarded the idea, and Mr. Shipherd seems 
to have accepted it as an afterthought. Their 
11 Collegiate Institute" grew into a college on their 
hands, after the announcement had been made that 
the doors should be open to young men and young 
women. There seems to have been no discussion 
of the question of introducing co-education into a 
higher institution of learning. The founders and 
colonists had many principles to discuss and settle, 
but this was not one of them. The concentration 
of spiritual and intellectual forces to move upon the 
1 Mississippi Valley" necessarily carried with it the 
education of men and women. To what extent 
they should be brought together in this preparatory 
education, was probably not clearly determined, 
even in idea. The earliest circular thus sets forth 
the plan : " The several departments of instruction 
in the Institute are thus arranged : Preparatory or 
Academic School ; Female Department ; Teachers' 
Seminary ; Collegiate Department ; and Theological 
Department." Then follows a brief description of 
each department or school, giving the idea of the 
female department thus : " The Female Department, 
under the supervision of a lady, will furnish instruc 
tion in the useful branches taught in the best female 
seminaries; and its higher classes will be permitted 
to enjoy the privileges of such professorships in the 
Teachers', Collegiate, and Theological Departments, 



CO- ED UCA 7 'ION. 1 7 5 

as shall best suit their sex, and prospective employ- 
ment." In a subsequent paragraph of the same cir- 
cular, we read : " Pupils may enter the Female Semi- 
nary for one term only, but none can enter the 
higher departments without expressing the determi- 
nation to pursue such a course as the Faculty shall 

direct The Preparatory School, and the 

Female Seminary, may be entered at any age above 
eight. The Teachers' and Collegiate Departments 
cannot be entered under fourteen." Such state- 
ments manifestly contemplate a separate school for 
girls, with the privilege of attending upon instruc- 
tion in the other schools or departments. This con- 
dition of things was never realized at Oberlin. What- 
ever the intention in the planting, the growth never 
brought out this form. There has been no female 
department, except in relation to general manage- 
ment and discipline, not as related to scholastic in- 
struction. In a letter written in May, 1834, by Mrs. 
M. P. Dascomb, the first principal of this depart- 
ment, giving to her friends a view of things as she 
found them at Oberlin, this sentence occurs: "I 
spend three err four hours daily in hearing classes 
recite. Mrs. Waldo also assists in school. The fe- 
males are very interesting — most of them from other 
States, and many from a distance. That depart- 
ment is not yet distinct from the other." The same 
state of things would be found by a visitor to-day. 
The fact seems to be that women came in because 
they belonged to the enterprise, as they come into 
the household, with no special theoretical views on 
the subject, but with a prevalent conviction that 



176 O BERLIN. 

every necessary adjustment could be made. The 
founders certainly held no new or special views of 
the rights or the sphere of woman : they only 
sought for her such an education as should fit her 
for highest usefulness in her own appropriate work. 

Thus young women were invited to the school, 
and came; and the required adjustments and ar- 
rangements were made as the years went on. The 
first year, out of one hundred and one pupils in 
attendance, thirty-eight were young women ; and 
these were of mature years and character. No 
children, boys or girls, were received. Provision 
was soon made by the community, in connection 
with the common-school system of the State, for the 
elementary education of their children. The pro- 
portion of young women in attendance slowly ad- 
vanced, being at the end of the first decade thirty- 
seven per cent of the whole ; at the end of the 
second, forty-three per cent; of the third — in the 
midst of the war — fifty-one per cent ; of the fourth, 
forty-seven per cent ; and of the fifth, fifty-three per 
cent. No special educational arrangement was made, 
the first year, for these young women, except the 
appointment of a lady principal. Their instruction 
was provided for in the general classes. 

The announcement for this department in 1835 
was as follows : 

"Young ladies of good minds, unblemished mor- 
als, and respectable attainments are received into 
this department, and placed under the superintend- 
ence of a judicious lady, whose duty it is to correct 
their habits and mould the female character. They 



CO-EDUCATION. 1 77 

board at the public table and perform the labor of 
the steward's department, together with the wash- 
ing, ironing, and much of the sewing for the stu- 
dents. They attend recitations with young gentle- 
men in all the departments. Their rooms are en- 
tirely separate from those of the other sex, and no 
calls or visits in their respective apartments are at 
all permitted. 

" This department is now full, and many applicants 
have been necessarily rejected. Such, therefore, as 
may wish to enter hereafter, would do well to send 
us their application, accompanied with the requisite 
testimonials, and hear from us before they make the 
journey in person." 

For the years 1836-7, no change in the organiza- 
tion of this department appears ; but in 1838 the 
catalogue presents a " Ladies' Course, introduced 
with a single sentence : " The following is the course 
of study for young ladies." This course was based 
upon a common-school education of that day, as a 
preparation, and was extended through four years. 
The course in the best female seminaries of the 
period was for three years. This course was, for 
the time, thorough in mathematics, natural science, 
English literature, history, and philosophy, but 
afforded no language, ancient or modern, except the 
" Greek of the New Testament." The only strictly 
" ornamental" branch was linear drawing. A sig- 
nificant remark concludes the presentation: " When- 
ever the course of study admits of it, the young 
ladies attend the regular recitations of the College 
Department." There were several studies not 



I7 8 O BERLIN. 

found in the College Course, which required separate 
classes, but the tendency was, as a matter of econ- 
omy, and of general wisdom, to diminish the num- 
ber of separate classes, and bring the two courses 
into harmony. " The Ladies' Course " stood thus 
side by side with the College Course for many 
years, modified and strengthened from year to year 
as experience suggested, or the general advancement 
of education in the country required. Greek was 
made optional in 1839, but was frequently studied 
by young women, and Latin and Hebrew as well. 
Latin was introduced as a required study in 1849, 
and French in 1852. 

The principal of this department was reinforced 
by a " Ladies' Board of Managers" in 1836, an insti- 
tution which has continued from that time. This 
Board has been made up of the lady principal and 
several ladies of mature experience, wives of mem- 
bers of the Faculty, or of others connected with the 
management of the college. To them was com- 
mitted the general ordering and discipline of the de- 
partment, and the provision of such special instruc- 
tion as might be necessary. This arrangement was 
intended to secure to the young women the watch- 
ful guardianship of ladies of experience and culture, 
and save them, in any case of inquiry or personal 
discipline, from the publicity of appearing before the 
general Faculty of the college. The service of this 
Board has been without compensation, and has un- 
questionably contributed much to the success of the 
" experiment " of co-education at Oberlin. 

In 1837 four young women came forward with a 



CO-ED UCA TION. I fc, 

full preparation for college, having pursued Latin 
and Greek in the various classes of the preparatory 
department, and asked admission to the Freshman 
Class, as candidates for graduation. Young women 
had already been reciting with all the college classes, 
and more or less in all the studies ; still, the idea of 
their taking the full College Course, instead of the 
course designed for them, raised a new question. 
There was a little hesitation, but the application was 
granted, and three of the four graduated in 1841 — 
the first young women in this country to receive a 
V degree in the arts. No announcement of this new 
departure appears in the Catalogue. For the years 
1838-9 the names of these young women appear 
after the names of all others under a separate head- 
ing, " College Course, Freshman Class." In 1839 
their names and classification lead the names in the 
Female Department, and in 1840 they are placed, 
with the college classes to which they belong, after 
•the names of the young men ; and this arrangement 
has been retained until the present time. But to 
guard against misapprehension as to the relations of 
these young women the following remark was intro- 
duced and kept standing in the Annual Catalogue 
until 1855: " Young ladies in college are required 
to conform to the general regulations of the Female 
Department." 

In 1847 two young women who had completed 
their literary course applied for admission to the 
Theological Course. They were received and regis- 
tered as " resident graduates, pursuing the Theologi- 
cal Course ;" and thus their names appear for three 



180 BERLIN. 

years. The next lady applicant for the Theological 
Course appeared in 1873. She was received and 
catalogued with her class. 

When the first class of young women had com- 
pleted the Ladies' Course, they were not brought be- 
fore the great congregation at Commencement to 
read their essays. They called together their friends, 
by tickets of invitation, the evening before Com- 
mencement, and read their essays in their own as- 
sembly-room, receiving no diplomas. The two fol- 
lowing years this anniversary was held in the college 
chapel the evening before Commencement, and the 
young ladies read before as large an assembly as the 
chapel could contain. Theoretically this was the 
Ladies' Anniversary and not a part of the Com- 
mencement proper, which was held the next day in 
the large tent. The next year, 1843, tne Commence- 
ment was held in the large new church not yet 
completed, and the young women of the Ladies' 
Course read in the same church the preceding af- 
ternoon, and received their diplomas. From this 
time onward the anniversary of the Ladies' Depart- 
ment was reckoned as a part of the Commencement, 
but the arrangements were designed to indicate that 
it was the day for the ladies specially. The plat- 
form was occupied by the Ladies' Board of Manag- 
ers, and the announcements were made by the lady 
principal, the president of the college being at hand 
to open with prayer and to present the diplomas. 

When the first young women came to graduate, 
having completed the full College Course, they natu- 
rally felt some anxiety as to the place that should be 



CO-ED UCA TION. 1 8 1 

given them at Commencement. It was proposed to 
them that they should read their essays on the pre- 
ceding day, with the young women of the Ladies' 
Course, it being announced that they had taken 
the full College Course, and should come forward the 
following day with the class to receive the degree. 
This was not thought to provide a suitable discrimi- 
nation, and to avoid the impropriety of having the 
young ladies read from a platform arranged for the 
speaking of young men, and filled with trustees and 
professors and distinguished gentlemen visitors, the 
essays of the lady college graduates were read by the 
\j professor of rhetoric, the young women coming upon 
the platform with their class at the close to receive 
their diplomas. This arrangement was continued 
eighteen years, but became less and less satisfactory, 
and in 1859, f° r the ^ rst time, the young women 
were permitted to read their own essays with the 
graduating class, and in 1874 a young lady graduate 
who desired it, was permitted to speak instead of 
reading an essay, and this liberty is still accorded. 

In 1875 the " Ladies' Course," which had appeared 
in the catalogue for forty years, was transformed 
into the " Literary Course," and opened to young 
men ; and the two courses thus presented became 
parallel courses in the School of Philosophy and the 
Arts — the Literary Course requiring one year of 
preparation, and the Classical three years. Thus a 
distinctive Ladies' Course disappears. For the Lit- 
erary Course no degree has yet been granted. It 
has been suggested that a year be added to the 
preparation required, and that a degree be conferred. 



1 82 O BERLIN. 

Thus it appears that co-education at Oberlin was 
not undertaken as a radical reform, but as a practi- 
cal movement in harmony with the prevalent idea of 
woman's work and sphere, and thus it has been car- 
ried forward, carefully adjusting itself to the new 
conditions, as they have arisen. There was no at- 
tempt to put young men and young women upon 
the same footing, regardless of their diverse natures 
and relations/ While they were members of the 
same class, and received, in general, the same in- . 
struction, their duties were not identical. There 
has been no effort to train young women as public 
speakers. Declamations, orations, and extempora- >J 
neous discussions have been required of young 
men — not of young women. Their elocutionary 
training has been in the direction of reading rather 
than of speaking. Nor has there been an aim to 
place young men and women upon the same footing 
in regard to the general regulation of conduct. The 
general judgment of the world has been accepted in 
regard to the proprieties of womanly conduct, and 
the college regulations have conformed to these 
principles. That young women should be less con- 
spicuous on the street, and in public generally, than 
young men, is a requirement of general society, and r 
the college regulations have recognized this fact. 

The Ladies' Hall is the headquarters of the 
Ladies' Department, furnishing private rooms for a 
hundred young women who choose to occupy them, 
also principal's office, reception rooms and parlors. 
The dining-room of this hall furnishes seats at table 
for nearly as many young men who choose to 



CO-ED UCA T/ON. 1 8 3 

take their meals there ; and thus they meet at meals 
and recitations. Social calls upon these young 
women arc in order during the early evening hour. 
A large number of young women board in families 
in the village, under the general supervision of the 
lady principal, and young men are received to the 
same families as boarders, with suitable arrangements 
in regard to rooms. This has been the order from 
the beginning. 

In the organization of Literary Societies, the prin- 
ciple of separation has always been maintained. 
The young men have their own societies, and the 
young women theirs ; and there has never appeared 
any desire for a different arrangement. At least 
this established order has been cheerfully accepted, 

The aim has been to have the restrictions few and 
simple, such as commend themselves to the good 
sense of the reasonable and well-disposed, and to 
depend greatly upon this good sense and reasonable- 
ness ; but the point has never been reached where it 
seemed wise or safe to dispense with all restrictions, 
and leave the young people to their own free judg- 
ment. The young need and expect such guidance. 
Older people often need it, but there is no one to 
afford it. 

There is no place in these pages for an argument 
upon the system. A historical statement of the ar- 
rangements, and the results, is all that can be given. 
The plan has been in operation fifty years, and the 
work is as satisfactory and hopeful to-day as it has 
ever been. It cannot be claimed that there have 
been no anxieties connected .with the system, or 



1 84 O BERLIN. 

that there have not been occurrences, at rare inter- 
vals, that were painful or even shocking. Such things 
belong to human society in every form, and no ar- 
rangement or vigilance can afford complete security. 
Those who have been intrusted with this work, dur- 
ing the years that are past, have been trained in the 
best schools of the land, and are familar with the 
results in these schools. They have sometimes 
come to the work with some apprehension ; but with- 
out exception, so far as is known, they have grown 
into a hearty approval of the system. 

It is not necessary to say that in scholarship the 
young women have held an honorable place. When- 
ever a comparison has been made, it has been found 
that the young women are a little above the average 
in regularity of attendance and in general scholar- 
ship ; and that the best scholar, in any branch of 
study, is just as likely to be a young woman as a 
young man. There is a probability that intense com- 
petition tells more upon the nervous endurance of 
the young woman than of the young man, and that 
anxieties and apprehensions in general take a stronger 
hold. Some care is called for in these respects ; yet 
it is not observable that a larger proportion of young 
women, who enter upon a full course, are turned 
aside, from failing health, than of young men. 

During the history of the college, one hundred 
and thirty-three young women have taken the full 
College Course, of whom nineteen have died since 
graduation — exactly one in seven. Seven hundred 
and two have taken the Literary Course, of whom 
ninety-five have died, or one in seven and four tenths. 



CO- ED UCA TIOiV. 1 8 5 

Eight hundred and fifty young men have graduated, 
of whom one hundred and eight have died, or one 
in seven and nine tenths. These proportions are 
not sufficiently divergent to afford an argument un- 
favorable to co-education, nor are the numbers suf- 
ficiently large to establish a favorable conclusion. 
The general impression of those who have watched 
the experiment is a safer reliance. 

That the system of co-education, as here pursued, 
tends to bewilder young women with false ambi- 
tions, or to draw them away from their proper work, 
no indication whatever has appeared. Those edu- 
cated here, like other educated women of the land, 
are found filling the places which belong to such 
women. For a large proportion, probably four fifths 
of the whole, their work centres in the home life. 
Others are filling responsible positions in this land 
and abroad, doing a work which the world needs. 
Amid all the changes in the outward form of the 
work, which the fifty years have brought, the spirit 
and aim of the young women gathered here remain 
the same as in the early days. 

In reviewing the early announcements and cata- 
logues, among other changes which time has wrought, 
a change of nomenclature is observable, to which 
the adjustment is not yet complete. The English 
use of the terms "lady" and " gentleman" is prevail- 
ing over the American, in our land, and Oberlin is 
in the transition state. Young ladies have become 
young women ; but we still retain, as relics of the 
early day, Ladies' Department, Ladies' Hall, Ladies' 
Literary Society, and Ladies' Board of Managers. 



1 86 O BERLIN. 

Fifty years more may help us through this formal 
inconsistency. 



MANUAL LABOR. 

The idea of Manual Labor as a feature in the life 
of the student was not original with the founders of 
Oberlin, nor peculiar to the Oberlin plan. Several 
schools at the West founded fifty years ago, more 
or less, undertook a provision for manual labor. In 
Ohio, Western Reserve College, Marietta College, 
Lane Theological Seminary, and other schools later 
than these, adopted the arrangement. Oneida In- 
stitute, of Central New York, from which quite a 
number of students came to Oberlin, through Lane 
Seminary and otherwise, was a manual-labor school ; 
and doubtless schools still farther east had tried the 
experiment. Probably in no case, except perhaps 
a few of the distinctively agricultural or mechanical 
schools of a later date, has there been so earnest 
and thorough and persistent an effort to maintain 
the system. The founders of Oberlin believed in 
the arrangement as fully as they believed in any form 
of education, and all their plans were formed in view 
of it. The five hundred acres of land secured as a 
gift from Messrs. Street & Hughes, of New Haven, 
were not secured mainly for the sake of providing 
ample grounds for the college site, nor for the pur- 
pose of selling at a profit for the advantage of the 
college. They were designed as a college farm, and 
were given by the proprietors, as the deed states, 
because of their " interest in a literary, manual-labor 



MANUAL LABOR. 1 87 

institution," to be held inalienably by the college. 
Three hundred acres in addition were bought to en- 
large the farm. The Circular issued in 1834, near 
the close of the first year of the college work, con- 
tains the following statement : 

" Manual Labor Department. — This depart- 
ment is considered indispensable to a complete edu- 
cation. It is designed first to preserve the student's 
health. For this purpose, all of both sexes, rich 
and poor, are required to labor four hours daily. 
There being an intimate sympathy between soul and 
body, their labor promotes, as a second object, clear 
and strong thought, with a happy moral tempera- 
ment. A third object of this system is its pecuniary 
advantage ; for while taking that exercise necessary 
to health, a considerable portion of the student's ex- 
penses may be defrayed. This system, as a fourth 
object, aids essentially in forming habits of industry 
and economy, and secures, as a fifth desideratum, 
an acquaintance with common things. In a word, it 
meets the wants of man as a compound being, and 
prevents the common and amazing waste of money, 
time, health, and life. 

" To accomplish the grand objects of this depart- 
ment, a farm of eight hundred acres has been secured, 
some fifty of which are cleared and seeded ; other 
clearing is in progress, and teams, cows, sheep, and 
swine, with agricultural implements, have been pro- 
cured according to present wants, to be increased as 
necessity requires. 

"This department is also furnished with a steam- 



1 88 OBERLIN. 

engine of twenty-five horse-power, which now pro- 
pels a saw-mill, grist-mill, shingle and lath saw, and 
turning-lathe, to which will be added other machinery 
as experience shall prove expedient. One work- 
shop is now erected and supplied with tools. Others 
are to be added as necessity requires, and funds al- 
low. The agricultural system is much more exten- 
sive than the mechanical, because it is more condu- 
cive to the student's health and support. A few 
apprenticed and a few natural mechanics may be well 
employed, but a large majority can work in mechan- 
ism to but little pecuniary profit ; while on the farm 
they can secure more health and earn much of their 
support." 

The first year four hours' daily labor was required 
of every student. The manual-labor bell was rung 
at one o'clock in the afternoon, and each young man 
repaired to the field or the forest, the shop or the 
mill, for his work, for which he received from four 
to seven cents an hour, according to his efficiency or 
his skill. The young women performed the domes- 
tic labor in the boarding-hall, for which they received 
three to four cents an hour. To equalize matters 
somewhat, the price of board was seventy-five cents 
a week for young women, and a dollar for young 
men. Tuition was twelve dollars a year for young 
women, and fifteen dollars for young men. Inciden- 
tals were one dollar for young women, and two dol- 
lars for young men. 

The Circular of the first year adds, in a closing 
paragraph: " The testimony of one year's trial is, 



MANUAL LABOR. 1 89 

that students, by four hours' daily labor, may pre- 
serve their health, clear and invigorate their minds, 
guard against morbid influences, earn their board, 
and yet facilitate instead of retarding their progress 
in scientific attainments. The most delinquent in 
manual, have been the most deficient in mental 
labor." 

The second year the number of students was in- 
creased nearly threefold, although " more than half 
the applications for admission were refused." The 
Circular for the year states that " students, both 
male and female, and in all the departments, are ex- 
pected to labor three hours daily." The abatement 
in the hours of labor seems to have arisen from the 
difficulty of providing remunerative labor for the in- 
creasing numbers. There was no end of work to be 
done — forests to clear away, stumps to eradicate, 
fields to subdue, and buildings to erect, besides all 
the work involved in feeding and caring for the hun- 
dreds of students. But all this was expenditure 
instead of income. There could be no profitable 
agriculture until the roots of the original forest which 
filled the soil had time to decay. Most of the labor 
on the fields for some years must be in the shape of 
permanent investment for remote returns ; and it 
was labor not well adapted to young men and boys 
who must work a few hours a day to pay for their 
board. It was easy for the superintendent of man- 
ual labor to measure off a half acre of forest for a 
youth to fell the trees upon it, and cut them into 
cord-wood. The work would be sufficient for the 
season ; and if he were paid by the acre and the 



I90 BERLIN. 

cord, the college would be safe, but the student 
would find the balance sadly against him ; while if he 
were paid by the hour, even at the lowest price, the 
college had little or nothing to show for its invest- 
ment. Only inexhaustible resources on the part of 
the college could solve the problem, and no such re 
sources existed. 

The founders were sanguine men, fruitful in de- 
visings, and various schemes for furnishing remun- 
erative labor to young men and women were tried. 
Mr. Shipherd, in one of his letters, suggested spin- 
ning and weaving for the girls ; but the factory era 
was just at hand, and the spinning-wheel and the 
family loom were giving way before the march of 
civilization. A dream of the production and manu- 
facture of silk in the country was producing some 
excitement, and was taken up by the managers here. 
Large quantities of mulberry trees were brought on 
from the East, and the young men were excused 
from study for a week to change the college farm 
into a mulberry plantation. The unsubdued soil 
and the unskilled labor combined, gave a discourag- 
ing result. A few scattering trees survived, and 
were visible for twenty years perhaps, but the col- 
lege never produced a cocoon, even for the Cabinet. 
A single family in the colony fed a few silk-worms 
for a year or two. Other experiments were tried, 
less expensive than this, but they brought no relief. 
The college employed, at times, a general business 
manager to bring things into shape, and again a 
college farmer was appointed to organize and direct 
the agricultural labor, but with the wisest arrange- 



MANUAL LABOR. I9I 

ment every bushel of corn produced cost twice the 
market price. These experiments were repeated 
through a series of years, in hope of a better result ; 
but long before the effort was relinquished, the col- 
lege ceased to require labor of the students, or even 
to promise it to those who desired it. The Cata- 
logue of 1838 says: " At present no pledge can be 
given that the Institute will furnish labor to all the 
students ; but hitherto nearly all have been able to 
obtain employment from either the Institute or the 
colonists. It is thought that the same facilities for 
available labor will be continued." From that day 
to this the college has held out no pledge to furnish 
labor, and of course the requirement has never been 
revived. In 1840 the announcement was as follows : 
" The number of students is now so great that the 
Institution cannot engage to furnish labor to all ; yet 
it does employ many. In the village the demand 
for labor both agricultural and mechanical is contin- 
ually increasing, as improvements and wealth ad- 
vance, and may be expected to keep pace with the 
growing number of the students. The demand for 
school-teachers during the winter vacation is con- 
stantly beyond the means of supply, many applica- 
tions being made to the Faculty which cannot be 
met. Students in the advanced classes receive from 
eighteen to twenty-six dollars per month and board." 
The following was the announcement for 1850: 
" The Institution cannot pledge itself to furnish labor 
to all the students. However, diligent and faithful 
young men can usually obtain sufficient employ- 
ment fiom the Institution or from the inhabitants 



192 BERLIN. 

of the village. Many, by daily labor, have been 
able to pay their board ; others have not been able 
to do this ; while others still have paid their board, 
washing, and room-rent. The long vacation gives 
an opportunity to those who are qualified to engage 
in teaching, by the avails of which many pay a large 
part of their expenses." 

In 185 1 a successful effort to raise an endowment, 
by the sale of scholarships through Northern Ohio 
and the adjacent regions, brought the college into 
general notice, so that the number of students was 
doubled in a single year. The attempt to maintain 
a superintendent for the organization of the manual- 
labor department had been abandoned some years 
before, and students were left to find employment 
for themselves as they were able. The college 
farm had been temporarily leased in parcels, and 
thus afforded some employment to diligent and 
faithful young men. It was found by experience 
that the best opportunity for students' labor was 
afforded by families, in the care of yards and gar- 
dens, in the preparation of fuel, and in other chores 
which pertain to every household. It was ascer- 
tained that a single family, as a rule, afforded as 
much employment to students as several acres of 
farm land, managed as the college had been able to 
do it, and this without any expense or supervision 
on the part of the college. After mature considera- 
tion, and the best legal advice attainable, it was de- 
cided to lease permanently the inalienable lands of 
the college, with the provision that the leaseholders 
should furnish a certain amount of labor to students, 



MANUAL LABOR. 1 93 

proportioned to the quantity of land held. Thus 
the college farm was opened to occupation for resi- 
dence, and is now covered by that part of the village 
lying between Lorain and Morgan streets, and west 
of Main Street. The care of the gardens and lawns 
affords more and better employment for students 
than the original farm could do ; and this employ- 
ment is available to those who seek it, without any 
attention on the part of the college. 

This certainly is a wide departure from the origi- 
nal idea of a manual-labor school. The college seal 
still bears the motto, " Learning and Labor," with a 
college building in the foreground, and in the dis- 
tance a field of grain ; and it is the aim and purpose 
of the managers to encourage all efforts at self-sup- 
port among the students, and to maintain a public 
sentiment in sympathy with the working life. The 
school, in some of its arrangements, still bears the 
impress of the original manual-labor plan. In the 
higher departments all recitations and lectures are 
in the forenoon ; so arranged originally to have the 
afternoon open to manual labor. Monday, instead 
of Saturday, is the open day of the week, because 
Monday was the washing day in the early college 
life, as in all well-ordered families. Until very re- 
cently the long vacation was in the winter instead of 
the summer, because summer rather than winter is 
the time for manual labor. Another and stronger 
reason finally operated to hold the long vacation to 
the winter, namely, the opportunity it afforded for 
school-teaching. These somewhat unusual arrange- 
ments are relics of the manual-labor system. 



194 OBERLIN. 

There are obvious and inevitable difficulties con- 
nected with the systematic provision of labor for 
students. It is proposed as a means of self-support, 
and probably could not be sustained without afford- 
ing compensation to the student. But the necessary 
expensiveness of the system more than absorbs the 
profits. The investment of capital is essentially the 
same for a student working three hours a day as for 
an ordinary laborer. The expenditure for superin- 
tendence is probably even greater, because the aver- 
age student acquires no stability or momentum in 
his work. Then, again, the work is far less effective 
even for the time it continues, because the student 
does not get fairly adjusted to his work before he 
drops it for the day. He never gets fairly into the 
harness; and finally, his heart is not in it: study is 
his occupation, and the work is incidental. He can- 
not throw himself into it, so as to become an effec- 
tive laborer. It is not his life. There are exceptions 
to this general fact, but not enough to affect the re- 
sult. Hence student labor can never enter the mar- 
ket in competition with ordinary labor. The reac- 
tion of the labor upon the student would be most 
wholesome, if a motive could be found to hold him 
to it, without compensation in the form of wages. 
This would involve the idea of making the labor a part 
of the education, like practice in the gymnasium or 
in the laboratory, a privilege for which the student 
pays, instead of receiving pay ; and this is the prin- 
ciple maintained in most industrial schools, but this 
was not the thought of the founders of Oberlin. 
The expectation which they cherished could not 



MUSIC. I95 

possibly be realized, but it was a part of the impulse 
which sustained them in laying their foundations. 
The building is, in this respect, different from their 
planning, but in regard to its great purpose it proba- 
bly transcends their expectations. 

MUSIC. 

The musical interest at Oberlin appeared early in 
its history. The announcement of 1834, the first 
exhibition of the plan and purpose, contains no 
reference to the subject, and during the first year of 
the college work there was no indication of special 
interest in that direction. Deacon Turner, one of 
the colonists, organized whatever musical talent the 
community afforded, and led the singing in the Sab- 
bath services. 

The Catalogue of 1835 gives the name of Rev. 
Elihu P. Ingersoll as " Professor of Sacred Music." 
To the special work of his professorship, the over- 
sight of the Preparatory Department was added. 
The musical instruction, given at this time, was 
limited to the training of classes in singing ; and this 
instruction was free to students in all departments. 
The new interest came in with the advent of Pro- 
fessors Finney, Morgan, and Cowles. These men 
were all passionately fond of music, and had strong 
convictions of its value as a force in Christian educa- 
tion, as well as of its importance as an element of 
worship. Their views doubtless had much to do 
with the growth of the interest at Oberlin. 

Mr. Ingersoll was enthusiastic in his work, but he 



ig6 O BERLIN. 

occupied the position only a single year. The nar- 
rowness of the resources of the college was doubtless 
the reason for his retirement. Instruction in music 
formed no definite part of the course, and when re- 
trenchment must be made it naturally took effect 
here. The Catalogue of 1836 gives a blank in place 
of the name of the Professor of Sacred Music ; but 
the same Catalogue states that " particular attention 
will be paid to the cultivation of sacred music," and 
this item is repeated from year to year. Some stu- 
dent who had gifts in that direction was employed 
to train classes in singing. In 1837 this work was 
committed to George N. Allen, a student who had 
recently entered the Junior Class from Western Re- 
serve College. He was a young man from Boston, 
a pupil of Lowell Mason, and had enjoyed the best 
musical advantages of the time. His interest in 
music was intense, and his Christian character was 
as earnest and intense as his love of music. Indeed, 
his Christian earnestness seemed to require music 
for its best expression. The violin was his special 
instrument, and he claimed no skill in the use of any 
other; but his soul seemed to animate almost any 
instrument that he touched. He continued teacher 
of music in the college until 1841, when he was 
elected Professor of Sacred Music, a position which 
he held until 1864. In the Catalogue in which he 
first appears as professor of music the following 
statement is found : " During the past year increased 
attention has been paid to the study of sacred music. 
Systematic instruction has been given to upwards of 
four hundred pupils, including a large class composed 



MUSIC. 197 

of young children of the citizens of the village." 
There was a very general revival of interest in music, 
and Professor Allen was the soul of it all. Yet the 
work was not regarded as giving full employment to 
a professor, or at least the compensation afforded 
was only half a salary, even according to the Oberlin 
standard. For the first two or three years the 
superintendence of the Preparatory Department was 
added to his duties, and after 1849, instruction in 
Geology and Natural History. In the interval was 
developed the germ of what has become, in these 
latter days, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. 

Among the hundreds of students gathered here, 
nearly half of them young women, there would in- 
evitably be a demand for instruction in instrumental 
music, especially upon the piano. For this demand 
the college made no provision. Indeed the trustees 
had put on record a resolution, that it was " inex- 
pedient for the college to afford instruction in piano 
music." This demand Professor Allen provided for, 
upon his own responsibility. He saw that instru- 
ments were secured, either by purchasing them him- 
self, or by encouraging others to purchase. He gave 
lessons as far as his engagements would permit, and 
provided competent teachers to meet the growing 
demand. Thus the musical interest at Oberlin was 
first organized. 

Meantime the interests of sacred music were not 
permitted to flag. For many years there was but a 
single church organization, and the church choir was 
enlarged to include almost all the vocal talent of the 
college and the town. There was no organ, and the 



I98 O BERLIN. 

satisfactory substitutes for the organ, afforded in 
these days, had not been invented. Professor Allen 
trained and organized an orchestra of six or eight 
performers, furnished with wind and stringed instru- 
ments ; and when a double bass-viol was wanted, he 
persuaded a young Scotchman of the Theological 
Department, Alexander McKellar, to undertake its 
manufacture — a feat which he accomplished with 
entire success. When it seemed impossible to pro- 
cure a sufficient number of copies of a piece of music 
to supply the large choir, Professor Allen procured 
dies, and stamped the music on blocks of cherry 
wood, from which he printed the required number of 
copies, and had the stereotype plates in reserve for 
future use. 

With such a choir and orchestra and other appli- 
ances, Oberlin became distinguished for its music. 
The church services, the Commencement exercises, 
and the concert following, were all attractive by 
reason of the music. It would not be easy to find 
at any time a community in which music was more 
effective and potent. The great sermons of the 
Sabbath were a power, but they were powerfully 
sustained and enforced by the music ; and Mr. 
Finney often paused in his impassioned appeals to 
give place to the winning, pleading strains of a 
choir, in full sympathy with the solemn truth he was 
urging. 

In these days the little Oberlin hymn-book first 
saw the light, under the title " Hymns for Social 
Worship," compiled by Professor Allen. It em- 
bodied about three hundred of the choicest hymns, 



MUSIC. I99 

in a compact little volume, which every student could 
carry in his pocket without being burdened. It was 
first issued in 1844, before the era of hymn and tune 
books, and many editions followed through a period 
of twenty-five years, until it took the form of the 
little hymn and tune book which preceded our pres- 
ent " Manual of Praise." A slight comparison will 
show that the last is a growth from the first. The 
original book of Professor Allen was not used for 
Sabbath worship ; and the first Oberlin hymn and 
tune book was not intended for such use. It was 
employed temporarily, while committees of the Con- 
gregational churches here were looking for a book 
to recommend for adoption. The little book was 
found so convenient that a proposal was made to en- 
large it until it should contain a sufficient supply of 
hymns and tunes for Sabbath use, and still be man- 
ageable as a pocket hymn-book. Hence the " Manual 
of Praise," compiled by Professors Mead and Rice — 
a most satisfactory development. 

Professor Allen was a composer, of some merit, 
both of hymns and of music. The hymn beginning 
" Must Jesus bear the cross alone?" which is attrib- 
uted to him in many collections, was not so much 
his by composition as discovery. He found it in 
an old book, reading "Must Simon bear the cross 
alone? " and made the change which greatly elevates 
the hymn. As first published in his little books 
it contained three stanzas; but in later editions a 
stanza is introduced as the second, which begins 
" Disowned on earth, 'mid griefs and cares." This 
was his own composition, but the three slightly 



200 OBEKLIN. 

grandiloquent stanzas appended to the hymn in 
" Songs for the Sanctuary" and some other collec- 
tions, still attributed to G. N. Allen, are not in his 
style, and must have some other origin. The tune 
" Maitland," which accompanies the hymn in various 
collections, and which in " Songs for the Sanctuary" 
is given as anonymous, is Professor Allen's composi- 
tion. This tune he claimed, and not the hymn. 

Out of this early church choir, built up by Professor 
Allen, grew the " Musical Union," which furnishes 
yearly the grand concert. This concert is older than 
the Musical Union, dating back probably to 1840. 
The profits of these concerts were formerly devoted 
to some public object. A large part of the cost of 
the organ, secured by the efforts of Professor Allen, 
for the First Church, was met in this way. The pres- 
ent college chapel bell was thus paid for, and several 
portraits of the older professors, hanging in the rooms 
of the societies, and in the Library of Council Hall, 
came by the same means. They were painted by 
Alonzo Pease, the earliest Oberlin artist. In later 
years the profits have been expended in giving some 
special interest to the concert, and in advancing the 
general interests of the Union. 

Under Professor Allen's training there grew up at 
Oberlin musicians of various merit, four of whom at 
least call for special mention, as being sons of early 
residents, and having obtained for themselves a re- 
cognition in the Avorld. These are Smith N. Penfield, 
Frederick H. Pease, John P. Morgan, and George 
\V. Steele. Two of these, Messrs. Morgan and 
Steele, after Professor Allen had been obliged to 



MUSIC. 20 1 

relinquish musical work, on account of his health, 
organized in 1865 the " Oberlin Conservatory of 
Music," to meet the demand for musical culture. 
This school was in its organization independent of 
the college, but was operated in full harmony with 
it, and furnished the instruction of the choral classes 
made free by the college to all its students. In 
1867, Mr. Morgan having withdrawn from the Con- 
servatory to engage in musical work in New York, 
Mr. Steele was elected Professor of Music in the col- 
lege, and the Conservatory was brought into connec- 
tion with the college as one of its departments. In 
1 87 1 Mr. Steele retired, and Fenelon B. Rice was 
elected to the Professorship of Music, and made 
Director of the Conservatory. These positions he 
still holds. 

The Conservatory has attained a high degree of 
prosperity, having employed the past year thirteen 
instructors, and having in attendance four hundred 
and sixty-one pupils, of whom three hundred and ten 
took music only. It still relies upon its own income, 
having no endowments, and drawing nothing from 
the funds of the college. So far it is a private insti- 
tution. But its teachers are all appointed by the 
trustees of the college, and its pupils are members 
of the college, and under its regulations. In return 
for its position and opportunity, the Conservatory 
gives instruction to four choral classes weekly, which 
are open without charge to all the students, directs 
the singing at college prayers, and furnishes the 
music for Commencement and other public occasions. 

It thus appears that musical culture belongs his- 



202 OBERLIN. 

torically to the educational work of Oberlin, and 
there is obvious and abundant reason for its continued 
prosecution. Music is one of the great forces of 
society, especially of Christian civilization. It must 
not be left wholly in the hands of the irresponsible 
and the worldly, to give it such direction as may 
suit their tastes or interests. There must be Christian 
schools of music, as well as of other forms of educa- 
tion and culture ; and such schools must exist in our 
own land, because the work is here, in large measure, 
that needs to be done, and because it is necessary 
that our musical culture should have a natural and 
spontaneous growth, in harmony with American 
character and life. It must be naturalized and 
acclimated — not a mere exotic. 

The spontaneous growth of this interest at Ober- 
lin, is an indication of favorable conditions here. 
These conditions belong to a large school of young 
men and young women, among whom the natural 
taste and gift for music may be found, and who 
furnish an appreciative audience, as an inspiration. 
The reaction, too, of the general educational spirit 
upon the quality of the musical work will be most 
helpful. It is a mistake to suppose that music alone 
can yield substantial culture or character, cr that it 
is sufficient to itself. Those who propose to work 
effectively in this line need breadth and substance 
of personal character — something more than mere 
effervescence of sentiment. The neighborhood of 
a university of general education, and especially of 
Christian education, and of co-education, is the natural 
place for a school of music. It is the desirable place 



MUSIC. 203 

to train those who shall go out as leaders of choirs 
and organists in the churches, and teachers of music 
in its various forms. The attention given to musical 
culture at Oberlin is in the line of its original pur- 
pose and plan ; and present indications point to this 
as a part of its future work. 

The trustees of the college have therefore taken 
action, encouraging the endowment of the Conser- 
vatory, and looking toward its permanent establish- 
ment as a department of the college. The corner 
lot, formerly occupied by President Mahan, and later 
by Professor Morgan, has been secured for the Con- 
servatory, and the original president's house now 
echoes to the sound of instruments of music. There 
is hope that another year may witness the erection 
of a building adapted to the necessities of this grow- 
ing college of music. 

The school of music has already shown its value 
as an educating force, operating upon the whole 
body of students. It elevates their ideals, and fur- 
nishes an atmosphere of culture, of which they par- 
take almost unconsciously. Our music is also a 
spiritual power which we could not spare. In the 
churches, and in the college chapel, at daily prayers, 
it lifts and inspires many souls. The service of 
prayers in the chapel can never become wearisome 
or monotonous while so many hundred voices, under 
a skilful director, unite in the hymn of thanksgiving 
or of supplication. There are few among teachers 
or pupils who feel that they can afford to miss the 
opportunity. It is a constant benediction on our 
college life. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE FINANCIAL HISTORY AND MATERIAL DEVEL- 
OPMENT OF THE COLLEGE AND THE COLONY. 

The two founders of Oberlin, a home missionary 
and a returned foreign missionary, were entirely des- 
titute of means when they undertook the work. 
Mr. Shipherd owned a small one-story house in 
Elyria, and nothing more. Mr. Stewart had noth- 
ing. No man of any means was associated with 
them, and they knew of no one to whom they could 
look. Their estimate of the funds required in such 
an enterprise was very moderate, and this was their 
encouragement. Mr. Shipherd, in a letter to his 
parents, in which he lays the plan before them, says 
that two thousand dollars would be required as an 
outfit for his school. The light on this subject came 
to them as they were able to bear it. There is a 
tradition that Mr. Shipherd left Elyria, on his first 
Eastern campaign, with three dollars in his pocket. 

The first material contribution to the project was 
the gift of five hundred acres of land by Messrs. 
Street & Hughes, of New Haven, as a school farm. 
At the same time, Mr. Shipherd contracted with 
them for five thousand acres in addition, for his 
colony, at a dollar and a half an acre, with the privi- 
lege of selling it to colonists at an advance of a dol- 
lar, thus securing five thousand dollars in addition, 



THE FINANCIAL HISTORY. 205 

pledged to the school. But this was balanced by a 
pledge given by Mr. Shiphcrd to the colonists whom 
he invited, that, early in the first summer, a steam 
saw-mill should be in operation on the ground, and, 
as soon as necessary, a grist-mill. Both were in 
place, nearly at the time appointed, and both were 
a source of expense to the college for years, until 
they were at length sold to private parties. The in- 
vestment would seem unwise, but it was doubtless 
necessary. No one among the colonists had any 
surplus capital for such an investment. In general 
they had only means to pay for their land, to make 
the journey, and build small houses for their families. 
Beyond this they had to depend upon their own 
labor to clear their lands and support their families, 
until they could secure some returns from the soil. 
There was no capitalist among them. The first col- 
lections for the college came in the form of scholar- 
ships. A contribution of one hundred and fifty dol- 
lars secured the privilege of sending one student 
perpetually to the school, to enjoy its manual labor 
opportunities, and all other advantages ; but he must 
pay for board and tuition their full cost. The schol- 
arship payment was simply in the way of outfit, that 
the facilities might be furnished by which the stu- 
dent could work his way. 

But the expenditures of the first year exhausted 
all these funds. The erection of the college build- 
ings, and the clearing of the farm, and the feeding 
and teaching of the hundred students in return for 
their work, called for increased supplies, and this 
was the burden upon Mr. Shipherd's heart as he 



206 OBERLIN. 

made his way to Cincinnati in the autumn of 1834. 
The financial result of that winter's campaign, which 
terminated in New York, was the enlistment of the 
interest of several leading merchants and business 
men of the city in the Oberlin enterprise, especially 
the two Tappans, Arthur and Lewis. Several of 
these men united in a " Professorship Association,'' 
pledging the interest of eighty thousand dollars 
yearly, to pay the salaries of eight professors at six 
hundred dollars each. There was no definite pledge 
to pay the principal at any particular time, but the 
expectation was that this would finally be paid as a 
permanent endowment. Besides this definite and 
open pledge, Arthur Tappan privately assured Mr. 
Finney that he should regard the entire surplus of 
his income as devoted to the work ; and his income 
at the time was about a hundred thousand dollars a 
year. These financial arrangements seemed all that 
could be desired. The professors elect came on, and 
as their salaries were provided for, the charge for 
tuition in the college classes was remitted. It was 
retained in the other literary departments, because 
there was no endowment for these. The great fire 
in New York, in the autumn of 1835, crippled the 
men of the Professorship Association, so that they 
were not able to meet their pledges ; and the finan- 
cial crash a year later completed the work. The 
Professorship Association never came to the surface 
again, and all the expectations based upon It fell to 
the ground. But the announcement of free tuition 
had been published, and students had come upon 
the strength of the promise. The trustees did not 



THE FINANCIAL HISTORY. ZOJ 

see their way to restore the charge for tuition until 
1843. 

Vigorous efforts were made by the trustees to 
meet the emergency arising from the failure in New 
York, and during 1835-36 a subscription of nearly 
a hundred thousand dollars was raised, to be paid in 
five annual payments ; but the financial overturning 
of 1837 swept it all away, so that only six thousand 
dollars of the subscription could be collected. Dur- 
ing the several years of financial depression that fol- 
lowed, a very limited and precarious support was 
secured to the professors, by constant collections 
among the friends of the college scattered over the 
country. There were many such friends, generally 
of limited means, who stood by the work in these 
years of trial. It was not a rare thing that the fam- 
ilies of the professors were in doubt as to the neces- 
saries of life, from day to day. The colonists were 
in similar straits. The returns from their new farms 
came in very slowly, and the supplies brought on 
from the East were well exhausted. Thus in the 
college and in the colony there was a significance, 
not often realized, in the prayer " Give us day by 
day our daily bread." 

But with all this straitness there was no real de- 
pression. The work grew in interest and hopeful- 
ness from year to year, and the men who had it in 
hand could not withdraw from the field. There 
were places open to them where they could have 
lived in comfort, but their work was here. Mr. 
Josiah Chapin, of Providence, sent remittances to 
Mr. Finney for some years, as regularly as if he 



203 OBERLIN. 

were under contract to pay his salary. Mr. Willard 
Sears, of Boston, did the same thing; and afterward, 
as prosperity in the stove business came to Mr. P. P. 
Stewart, he provided similarly for Professor Mor- 
gan. President Mahan was wont to spend his win- 
ter vacations at the East, in preaching, and the gen- 
erous gifts which he received in the work, and in 
view of his position here, made up his salary. Other 
professors were often obliged to sell their claims 
upon the college in the form of " Institution Orders," 
to provide for pressing needs. Indeed, these orders 
became a sort of colonial currency, passing at a dis- 
count, like much other paper, but never so much de- 
pressed as the " Greenbacks" in the war. 

Thus, in spite of every effort, in 1839 tne college 
was more than thirty thousand dollars in debt, and 
bankruptcy threatened. There were no able friends 
in this country to come to the rescue. In this crisis 
two of the trustees, Father Keep, and Mr. William 
Dawes, undertook a financial mission to England. 
Prominent antislavery men in this country, like Mr. 
Gerrit Smith, furnished them letters, and helped 
them to an outfit. The application was not for en- 
dowments, or money for current expenses, but for 
help to pay the indebtedness. They prosecuted 
their mission among the antislavery people of Eng- 
land, especially those of the Society of Friends, to 
whom the Oberlin enterprise commended itself on 
account of its antislavery character, and its forward- 
ness in the education of women. The fact that 
Oberlin students were engaged in missionary work 
among the frcedmen of Jamaica was a matter of in- 



THE FIXANCIAL HISTORY. 2CO, 

terest to many Christians of England. There was a 
natural repugnance to give to an object so remote, 
and in a foreign country; and the work was laborious 
and slow. The gifts received ranged from a hun- 
dred pounds, the largest, down to a few shillings. 
The two men sent forth to this work held on their 
way, without rest or diversion, walking by St. Paul's 
from day to day, never taking time to enter, and 
scarcely to look up at the majestic dome. They let 
no opportunity or prospect pass. Having learned 
that the Common Council of the City of London 
held some funds in trust for charitable purposes, 
they went before that large body of honorable citi- 
zens and presented their cause; and what is even 
more surprising, they came within a vote or two of 
securing an appropriation. 

Messrs. Keep and Dawes went out in the mid- 
summer of 1839, ar) d returned near the close of 
1840, after an absence of about eighteen months, 
bringing with them, above all expenses, thirty thou- 
sand dollars in money, sufficient "to meet the most 
pressing liabilities of the institution, a large acces- 
sion of books to the library, with good provisions for 
philosophical and chemical apparatus." The old 
compound microscope, until recently the only 
microscope owned by the college, costing in its day 
fifty guineas, and the smaller telescope, costing forty 
guineas, were a part of this apparatus. Mr. Hamil- 
ton Hill of London, a very genial Christian gentle- 
men, with his family came with Messrs. Keep and 
Dawes, having been invited to become secretary and 



2IO OBERLIN. 

treasurer of the college, a position which he held for 
twenty-five years. 

Relieved of the pressing debt, the college held on 
its way the next ten years, dependent upon the 
yearly gifts of its friends and making no progress 
towards endowment. The gift of twenty thousand 
acres of land in Western Virginia by Gerrit Smith 
was a special encouragement, and this was its chief 
immediate value. Ten thousand acres were at once 
transferred to Arthur Tappan in payment of a loan 
of five thousand dollars, and this was a substantial 
benefit. The remaining ten thousand were twice 
sold for twenty-five cents an acre, and in each 
case came back upon the college. Counter claims 
and hostile legislation embarrassed the title, and led 
to years of litigation ; and now, after more than 
forty years, there is a prospect that the college will 
come through with a small balance on the right side. 
This is but a single instance of hope deferred, of 
which so many have occurred in the financial ex- 
perience of fifty years. 

Near the close of 1850 a movement was made to 
secure an endowment of one hundred thousand dol- 
lars by the sale of scholarships. The scholarships 
were of three varieties, securing free tuition for one 
student at a time, for six years, eighteen years, and 
perpetually ; and costing severally twenty-five dol- 
lars, fifty dollars, and one hundred dollars. The 
money was not payable and the scholarship had no 
force until the hundred thousand dollars were sub- 
scribed. The plan was a popular one, and in a little 
more than a year the amount was pledged ; twenty- 



THE FINANCIAL HISTORY. 211 

two thousand dollars being pledged in Oberlin, and 
thirty-seven thousand in the county. By this move- 
ment a fund of nearly ninety-five thousand dollars 
-was raised and invested, of which the annual interest 
received was about six thousand and seven hundred 
dollars. This was the sole reliance for the payment 
of the salaries of instructors. A professor's salary 
was six hundred dollars. 

An immediate effect of this endowment was that 
the number of students was doubled, advancing in 
a single year from five hundred and seventy to ten 
hundred and twenty, and the next year to thirteen 
hundred and five. This was encouraging generally, 
and would have been helpful financially but for the 
fact that the scholarships sold absorbed all the fees 
for tuition. This, of course, was not unforeseen. 
About fourteen hundred scholarships had been sold, 
and these were transferable, so that no student ap- 
peared at the office without a scholarship. The ex- 
pense of instruction in the lower departments was 
increased by this large increase of numbers ; but 
most of the elementary teaching was done by stu- 
dents from the higher classes at a small compensa- 
tion. Thus the college was enabled to make ends 
meet for several years with this very limited income. 
It would be difficult to find an instance in the whole 
history of education in the country, where so much 
work has been done for so little pay. 

Until after i860 nothing occurred in the results 
of the scholarship system which had not been antici- 
pated. It had been planned and administered with 
the greatest care, to guard against any possible mis- 



2 1 2 O BERLIN. 

understanding on the part of purchasers of scholar- 
ships, and the entire movement was a success. But 
the war with its disturbance of values had not been 
foreseen. A salary of six hundred dollars was 
utterly insufficient, when the prices of all the neces- 
saries of life had more than doubled. There was no 
alternative : the old friends of the college must a^ain 
be asked to come to the rescue. One of these, Mr. 
J. P. Williston, of Northampton, Mass., added two 
hundred dollars a year, for three years, to the salary 
of every professor. Wm. C. Chapin, then of Law- 
rence, Mass., pledged thirty thousand dollars to the 
endowment of the college, and paid the interest on 
it at seven and a half per cent during the whole 
period of extravagant prices. Many others respond- 
ed generously, and thus the crisis was met. 

The scholarships, after the first six years of their 
existence, began to be cancelled according to the 
regularity with which they had been used, and after 
eighteen years the next class began to disappear, and 
before 1880 almost all the terminable scholarships 
had been exhausted. There were nearly four hun- 
dred perpetuals, and no lapse of time could annul 
these. In many cases the holders of these have sur- 
rendered them to the college as a free gift ; in other 
cases they have reserved the right to send their own 
children without a fee for tuition ; in still others 
they have exchanged the perpetual for terminable 
scholarships, and others have transferred them to 
the college at a price. Thus, after more than thirty 
years, the scholarship liabilities have been es- 
sentially worked off, and only a few relics survive. 



THE FINANCIAL HISTORY. 21 3 

The undertaking was a formidable one, and any 
school may well hesitate before venturing a repeti- 
tion of the experiment. There have been disas- 
trous failures in similar undertakings. 

During all these years the endowment of the col- 
lege has been slowly advancing. In 1867 the trus- 
tees of the estate of Dr. Charles Avery, of Pittsburg, 
Pa., transferred to the college twenty-five thousand 
dollars on condition that free tuition should be fur- 
nished perpetually to fifty needy and worthy colored 
students who should apply for it. In 1870 Mr. 
Charles H. Dickinson, of Fairport, N. Y., as almost 
the last act of his life, gave ten thousand dollars 
toward the endowment of the Theological Seminary. 
In 1878-81 Miss Mary Holbrook, of Holbrook, Mass. 
gave twenty-five thousand dollars for the endow- 
ment of the Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric and 
Pastoral Theology. In 1880 the college received 
from Mrs. Valeria G. Stone, of Maiden, Mass., fifty 
thousand dollars towards endowment — the largest 
single gift ever received. At the reunion of the 
alumni of the college in 1875 a subscription was start- 
ed for the endowment of the " Finney Professorship," 
and nearly twenty-five thousand dollars have come 
into the treasury in connection with the movement. 
Upon the retirement of Professors Morgan and Das- 
comb in 1880, a second subscription among the 
alumni was undertaken to provide a fund for their 
retirement, which should ultimately constitute an 
endowment of the Dascomb Professorship. About 
fourteen thousand dollars have come in on this sub- 
scription, and a balance of fourteen thousand re- 



214 BERLIN. 

mains to be collected. The " Graves Professorship" 
of thirty thousand dollars was endowed in part by 
the late R. R. Graves, of Morristown, New Jersey, 
and has been completed by his brother and members 
of his family. The present invested fund of the col- 
lege above all liabilities, April, 1883, amounts to two 
hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Outstand- 
ing pledges which should soon come in will bring the 
amount up to four hundred and twenty-five thou- 
sand; and if seventy-five thousand could be added the 
present jubilee year it would complete a half million 
of endowment. Compared with former straitness 
this would seem an ample provision ; but it will be ob- 
served that the income of this sum at six per cent., 
which is all that can be safely assumed, would be 
but thirty thousand dollars — a very small reliance for 
an institution carrying forward such a wide range of 
educational w r ork. The expenses of the college for 
the last financial year were forty-eight thousand 
seven hundred and nine dollars, and the receipts 
from all sources, including donations, aside from 
gifts for endowment, were fifteen dollars more than 
the expenses. The salaries paid to regular profes- 
sors are sixteen hundred and eighteen hundred dol- 
lars. They were increased about two years ago by 
the addition of two hundred dollars to each. A 
serious financial depression during the current year 
would decidedly darken the prospect of enlargement 
of the endowment which is looked for in the pay- 
ment of outstanding subscriptions, and in additional 
subscriptions — an experience often encountered in 
the history of the college. 



THE FINANCIAL HISTORY. 21 5 

The present year a movement has been inaugu- 
rated by friends of the college and of Hon. James 
Monroe, late Member of Congress, to raise thirty 
thousand dollars for the endowment of a professor- 
ship of political science and international law. The 
movement has nearly reached its consummation. 
Mr. Monroe was a professor in the college from 
1848 to 1865, and his return will be occasion of great 
satisfaction. 

Various friends of the college have given notice 
of help, to come when their estates shall be settled. 
Others still have transferred to the college life-insur- 
ance policies, either paid up or on which they pay 
the premiums as they fall due — notably Mr. Wm. C. 
Chapin, of Providence, R. I., for more than twenty- 
seven thousand dollars, and Mr. Charles J. Hull of 
Chicago, for nearly fifty thousand, to endow the 
" Frederika Bremer Hull Professorship," in memory 
of a daughter who graduated here. Still other 
friends who wish finally to benefit the college, but 
who need the avails of their property while they live, 
and are willing to be free from the care of it, have 
placed it in the college treasury as a gift, receiving 
back a bond for an annuity equal to the interest of 
the money given. The college holds at present an- 
nuity funds invested as trust funds to the amount 
of forty-five thousand dollars. The method is very 
simple, and has proved very satisfactory, especially 
to those to whom the care of their property is a 
burden. 

Little has been done in the accumulation of bene- 
ficiary funds. The aggregate of these, in the form 



2l6 OBERLIX. 

of scholarships and other funds, amounts to some- 
what more than seventeen thousand dollars. No 
prize funds have ever been offered to the college. 

The people of Oberlin, according to their means, 
have shared generously in every movement to sus- 
tain the college, sometimes contributing to endow- 
ment, at other times to buildings, and again to cur- 
rent expenses, to forestall the contraction of a debt. 
In a crisis of the Theological Department, in 1868, 
they came to the rescue with a subscription of 
twenty thousand dollars for a new professorship, 
and Rev. Hiram Mead was called. The tenth article 
of the old Colonial Covenant provided for such co- 
operation : " We will feel that the interests of the 
Oberlin Institute are identified with ours, and do 
what we can to extend its influence to our fallen 
race." 

COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 

The first building erected for the college was 
known as Oberlin Hall. It was built the first 
summer, in 1833, by the colonists then on the 
ground, and was completed, ready for the school, 
Dec. 8. It was planned as a two-story building, 
thirty-five by forty feet ; but before the roof-timbers 
were prepared, it was decided to carry up about 
two thirds of the width of the building into a third 
story called " the attic," after the fashion of a mod- 
ern grain elevator. This building contained all that 
was known as Oberlin College, until the summer of 
1S35. It embraced boarding-hall, chapel, meeting- 
house, school-rooms, college office, professors' quar- 



COLLEGE BULLDLNGS. 21 7 

ters, and private rooms for about forty students. 
The attic received twenty young men, with a room 
for every two, affording space still for a corridor 
four feet wide, and for a flight of stairs. The attic 
gave way for a full story in 1838, and the building 
still stands as private property on the south side of 
College Street, nearly opposite the historical elm. 
It is still useful, the lower stories being occupied for 
business purposes, and the upper story recently as a 
photograph gallery. It has endured well the rav- 
ages of time, considering the difficulties under which 
it was erected. The cellar walls and underpinning 
were originally of heavy oak timbers, squared and 
laid up like a block-house ; but stone walls took their 
place when the road to the quarries in Amherst be- 
came passable. It was in the little chapel of this 
building that the students gathered to welcome Mr. 
Finney, upon his first arrival in Oberlin, in 1835. 

The second building was the carpenter's shop, a 
two-story frame building, intended as a shop where 
the students who had some mechanical skill should 
perform their four hours of daily labor. It was 
erected the first autumn or early winter, and stood 
west of Oberlin Hall, nearly where the post-office 
now is. It was one of the few buildings which were 
painted red, according to the early vote of the colo- 
nists. Upon the great accession in 1835, when room 
was in such demand, the carpenters' benches were 
turned out and the two stories were divided up, by 
rough board partitions, into rooms for students, and 
two lecture-rooms. One of these was occupied by 
Dr. Dascomb as his first laboratory, and in the other 



2 1 8 OBERLIN. 

Mr. Finney began his theological lectures. It was 
in front of this building, toward the south, that the 
so-called burning of the classics took place. In 1836 
the red shop was removed to the south end of the 
west wing of the new boarding hall, and used as a 
wood-house. It still exists as a dwelling-house in 
Carpenter's Court, South Main Street. 

The new boarding-hall, known afterward as the 
Ladies' Hall, was begun in 1834, but not completed 
until the autumn of 1835. It stood still west of the 
red shop, on the north-east corner of the lot occu- 
pied by the Second Church. The building was a 
frame thirty-eight feet by eighty, and three stories 
high, with a wing of two stories on each end extend- 
ing toward the south. The whole force of young 
men was turned out for three days to the raising of 
the building, and a great part of the work, without 
and within, was done by students. Stone for the 
foundations was still too costly, and this large build- 
ing was erected upon oak pillars, six or seven feet in 
length, cut from the bodies of large trees, and sunk 
into the ground to the depth of the cellar that was 
to be. Afterward the earth was gradually excavated 
from under the building, and the walls were put in 
their place. The dining-room of this building ac- 
commodated, according to the early ideas of room, 
two hundred boarders, and there were rooms besides 
for about sixty students. When first completed, the 
upper story, and the west flights of stairs were given 
up to young men, and the remainder of the build- 
ing, excepting certain rights in the dining-room and 
parlor, to the steward's family, and to young women. 




FIRST LADIES HALL. 




ladies' hall (new). 



COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 219 

In the simplicity of the first years, there was con- 
structed, between the dining-room and the sitting- 
room, a set of boxes, like large post-office boxes, a 
hundred or more, shut in with doors on each side. 
Each young man had his box assigned him, and in 
it he deposited his bundle of linen for the laundry 
every Monday morning, and found it there the next 
Saturday evening. In the unfinished first story of 
this building, Mr. Finney preached, more or less, dur- 
ing his first summer in Oberlin. The building stood 
until the completion of a second new Ladies' Hall. 
It was then divided into parts and removed, and 
now exists in the form of five dwelling-houses in 
various parts of the town. 

In May, 1835, Cincinnati Hall, already described, 
was erected, to receive the students from Lane. It 
was what might be called, in the dialect of the early 
immigration, a college " shanty." It was occupied 
two or three years, was afterward used as a carpen- 
ter's shop, and wholly disappeared about 1840. 

Another three days' raising occurred in the au- 
tumn of 1835, when Colonial Hall was built. It 
stood still west of the Ladies' Hall, on the corner oc- 
cupied by the Soldiers' Monument — eighty feet from 
east to west and forty feet wide, three stories in 
height. It was named from the fact that the colo- 
nists subscribed nearly half the cost of the building, 
with the privilege of using the lower story, which 
was to be the college chapel, for Sabbath services. 
The upper stones were dormitories for young men, 
twenty-two rooms, for two students each, with a sin- 
gle recitation-room on the second floor. The chapel, 



220 OBERLIN. 

well packed, seated eight hundred. At first it was 
sufficient for the Sabbath congregation, but before 
the great church was built it was necessary at times 
in the morning to hold a subsidiary service in the 
Laboratory or the Music Hall. Colonial Hall stood 
about thirty years, but after the building of the new 
college chapel, in 1855, the old chapel was divided 
into four recitation-rooms. Colonial Hall still exists 
in the form of two unsightly dwelling-houses on 
West Lorain Street. 

Tappan Hall was begun in 1835, and with its walls 
at about half height it stood through the winter, 
and was completed in 1836 — a brick building, a hun- 
dred and twelve feet by forty-two, and four stories 
in height, containing a recitation-room in each cor- 
ner of the first story, and about ninety single rooms 
for students in the different stories. These rooms 
were strikingly simple and uniform in their arrange- 
ments, being each sixteen feet by eight, with a door 
at one end and a window at the other. In one cor- 
ner, near the door, was an open wardrobe, and in the 
other a narrow bedstead. In a corner by the win- 
dow was the stove and, the other side of the window, 
the table. This was the ultimate idea, for the time, 
of comfort and convenience in a college dormitory, 
not only at Oberlin, but in the country generally. 
Those were the favored ones who could establish a 
claim upon Tappan Hall. The building was in- 
tended primarily for the students of theology, and 
after them for college students. The central tower 
was originally in two sections, giving more than 
twice the present height ; but in the judgment of 




COLLEGE CHAPEL. 



COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 221 

some of the trustees it presented too much leverage 
to the strong west wind, and in Mr. Shipherd's eyes 
it was not according to the simplicity of " the pat- 
tern shown in the Mount." The upper section was 
therefore removed. The money for the building, 
ten thousand dollars, was given by Arthur Tappan. 
The building was placed in the centre of the college 
square, with the intention of having all other college 
buildings stand around the square, on different sides. 
The plan would not have been a bad one if the cen- 
tral building had been devoted wholly to public uses 
and not a dormitory building. Tappan Hall is now 
nearly fifty years old, and but for grave imperfec- 
tions of constitution it might serve successive gener- 
ations of students another fifty years. Many consul- 
tations have been held over it, all ending in one con- 
clusion — that it must soon be removed. 

The year 1835 marked a building era for the col- 
lege. Two dwelling-houses were erected this season 
by the college — one for President Mahan, the other 
for Professor Finney, two-story brick buildings, spa- 
cious and comely, and well adapted to their uses, 
standing one at the south-west and the other at the 
north-west corner of the square, overlooking the 
square, but not on it. The street which separated 
them from the square was named Professor Street, 
because it was the purpose to fill up the space be- 
tween these two buildings with houses for other pro- 
fessors. This policy was not carried out. It was 
soon found desirable that, in a new and growing 
place, the professors should build and own their own 
dwellings, and thus at least have homes in their 



222 OBERLW. 

later years, if nothing more. Such a home is more 
satisfactory and enjoyable than one owned by the 
college, even if inferior in its appointments. 

The style and expense of these college dwellings 
gave rise to some discussion. A letter from Arthur 
Tappan, received at this time, encouraged attention 
to taste and comeliness in all the buildings and 
grounds. A prominent and zealous colonist ad- 
dressed a communication to the trustees, criticising 
the lavish and unchristian expenditure, and giving it 
as his opinion that three hundred dollars had been 
wasted upon the buildings, out of regard to worldly 
fashion. President Mahan occupied his house until 
his retirement in 1850; President Finney his until 
his death in 1875. Mr. Finney bought his house of 
the college in 185 1, and Professor Morgan the 
president's house a little later. 

The last building to which the impulse of 1835 
gave origin was Walton Hall, erected by the Pres- 
byterian Church of Walton, N. Y. They sent sev- 
eral of their young men to Oberlin, and to furnish 
them quarters, they erected a two-story frame build- 
ing, with twelve rooms, and placed it in charge of 
one of their young men. To students from Walton 
there was no rent. The building stood on South 
Main Street, nearly opposite the site of the present 
Union school-house. After fifteen years it became 
the property of the college, and ten years later it 
was sold to private parties, was changed into a furni- 
ture shop, and finally was destroyed by fire. 

In 1838 the building known in later times as the 
" Old Laboratory" appeared — a brick building of one 



COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 22$ 

story, about thirty feet by fifty in dimensions, and 
containing a large lecture-room with rising seats and 
arched ceiling, and skylight over the lecturer's table, 
and all other appliances for the illustration of lec- 
tures in chemistry. It was built according to Dr. 
Dascomb's plans, embodying ideas which he ob- 
tained as a student under Dr. Musseyat Dartmouth 
and Professor Silliman at Yale. Adjoining the lec- 
ture-room was a working room for the professor, and 
a study. This gave to the professor of chemistry 
independent quarters, in which he greatly rejoiced ; 
and these rooms he occupied until the close of his 
work — more than forty years. About fifteen years 
ago the lecture-room was remodelled. The tiers of 
elevated benches were removed, the elevation was 
reduced, and the room was seated with chairs. The 
building afforded no facilities for laboratory work 
for students, and such work was not provided for, 
at that time, in any American college. Upon the 
appointment of Dr. Dascomb's successor, trained in 
the modern methods of instruction, it became nec- 
essary to remove the work in chemistry to another 
building. Since that time the Old Laboratory has 
been used as a general recitation-room. 

When this laboratory was erected it occupied a 
very retired position, in the rear of Colonial Hall; 
but upon the removal of the old buildings, and the 
laying out of " College Place," it became quite con- 
spicuous. It must therefore yield to the demands 
of progress, and in spite of all old associations, give 
place to a more sightly structure. As these lines are 
being penned it stands dismantled and ready to falL 



224 OBERLM. 

Those who shall gather at the jubilee, looking for 
the old landmarks, will scarcely recognize the place 
it occupied. 

About this time the trustees voted to build a 
dwelling-house for the college farmer, and commit- 
ted the responsibility of the work to the farmer him- 
self. He proceeded to erect a somewhat spacious 
two-story frame house, of unpretending appearance, 
but larger than the trustees had intended. The 
farmer proposed to take the building as his own, 
and complete it without charge to the college. The 
proposition was accepted ; but the original farmer's 
house, at the corner of Professor and Elm streets, 
having undergone some changes, is now the home 
of the college president. 

The Music Hall was one of the subsidiary build- 
ings of the early days, erected in 1842 — a frame build- 
ing of one story, as large as the laboratory, giving 
a pleasant audience-room for about two hundred 
persons, with two entries at the front, and between 
them a piano-room with elevated floor, shut off from 
the audience-room by sliding doors. It stood on the 
west side of Professor Street, in the open space 
south of the present Ladies' Hall. 

Professor Allen secured the erection of the build- 
ing, by enlisting and uniting the interests of the 
choir and of the college literary societies ; and it was 
used by these different associations in common. 
After eight or ten years, these bodies found more 
desirable quarters, and the Music Hall came into 
the entire possession of the college. It was then 
divided by a partition across the building, and one 



COLLEGE BULLDLXGS. 22$ 

part became the room for the recitations in Mathe- 
matics and Natural Philosophy, and the other a room 
for the young Cabinet of Natural History, of which 
Professor Allen had laid the foundations. After fif- 
teen or twenty years more, better rooms were pro- 
vided for the Cabinet and the Philosophical Appa- 
ratus, and the Music Hall was moved near to the 
Ladies' Hall, and converted into a gymnasium for 
the young women. Four years ago the fire went 
through it, and the skeleton remaining was taken 
down. 

Twelve years elapsed after the building of the 
Music Hall before any further building was under 
taken. Then the college chapel was erected ; not 
because the college had money to build, but because 
it had become an absolute necessity. Nine hundred 
students were present, and the old chapel could seat 
only six hundred comfortably. At certain seasons 
of the year, an overflow gathering for prayers had 
been held in the Music Hall. 

In 1854 the walls of the chapel were put up, and 
the building was completed in 1855, at an entire cost 
of eleven thousand dollars. The dimensions of the 
building are fifty-six feet by ninety. It is built in 
two stones of twelve feet and twenty-five, the upper 
story being the audience-room. The first floor pro- 
vided two offices, a library room, three lecture-rooms 
for the Theological Department, and one Literary So- 
ciety room. Two broad flights of stairs in the front 
end led to the chapel. There was a gallery across 
the end, over these stairs, and the stand was next to 
the gallery between the doors leading from the entry 



226 OBERLIN. 

to the audience-room. Students coming in must 
face the audience and pass the stand. There was 
little temptation to tardiness, or to a disorderly exit. 
The room was finished neatly with plain board 
seats, of varnished whitewood, trimmed with black 
walnut, arranged on a level, without any rise in the 
floor. This made the seats in the remote part of the 
room seventy-five feet from the stand undesirable 
for those who were interested in the services. The 
bell of the old chapel was at first placed in the cu- 
pola, but soon a new bell was purchased from the 
profits of a Commencement Concert, by the Musical 
Union, and the old bell went to the Union school- 
house. 

Externally the chapel stands as it was first built ; 
but the audience-room has been reconstructed, by 
removing the gallery, placing the stand at the side, 
and arranging the seats in elevated circular ranges, 
so that every student has a good view of the stand. 
Thus we have an admirable audience-room, of nine 
hundred sittings. In these changes the stairs ap- 
propriated to the young women were transferred 
from the front to the rear. The cost of these 
changes, amounting to twenty-three hundred dol- 
lars, was met by a subscription by students and 
Faculty. Still another change is thought of, involv- 
ing about the same expense. It is desirable to have 
more means of exit than the two broad flights of 
stairs afford. A projection built upon the south 
side, broad enough and deep enough for an organ 
recess, and a flight of stairs on each side, would 
bring a needed relief and improvement. The organ 



COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 22J 

has been purchased by the Director of the Conser- 
vatory, but the recess for it is not provided for. 

For many years a site had been reserved for a new 
Ladies' Hall — the south-west corner at the intersec- 
tion of College and Professor streets, but no practical 
movement had been made until the Commence- 
ment Reunion of i860. Then, just at the close of 
the exercises, without previous consultation or ar- 
rangement, after a stirring address from Governor 
Dennison, who was present, in which he alluded to 
the pressing necessity, the subscription began, and 
at the close amounted to more than three thousand 
dollars. This was enough to lay the foundations. 
The contract for this part of the work was made as 
soon as plans could be formed and approved, and 
the material soon began to be collected. In the 
spring of 1 861 the corner-stone was laid by Father 
Keep, and the building of the foundation went on. 
Before the work was half finished the war came, and 
the contractor had difficulty in holding enough of 
his men to complete the work. It was finished by 
midsummer, and stood through two winters, before 
any superstructure was reared upon it. The con- 
tracts for materials were made, and mostly filled be- 
fore the great rise in prices came. The walls were 
built, and the roof added, in 1863 ; and the interior 
was so far completed at the time of Commencement, 
1865, that the alumni gathered in it for their re- 
union dinner. The first cost of the building, includ- 
ing the furniture for the private rooms, was about 
forty thousand dollars — a small sum for a building of 
such extent and value, but more than all the build- 



228 OBERLIN. 

ings previously erected by the college had cost. In 
form, it is adjusted to the corner lot on which it 
stands, with two similar fronts, of one hundred and 
twenty-one feet each, at right angles to each 
other, with a depth of fifty feet, and three stories in 
height. It is a building of pleasing aspect and satis- 
factory in its arrangements ; and, unless some catas- 
trophe befalls it, it should serve its purpose for 
generations to come. In 1880, after the burning of 
the gymnasium, an addition was built, projecting 
from the western extremity of the hall toward the 
south, and carried up two stories. It provides a 
fine gymnasium, several rooms needed for the 
steward's department, and several additional rooms 
for young women. The hall, as thus enlarged, pro- 
vides, in its second and third stories, rooms for 
about a hundred young women ; and on the first 
floor, parlors, offices, society room, assembly room, 
and reading-room, besides the rooms connected with 
the boarding department, including a dining-room 
for about two hundred boarders, with bake-room, 
laundry, etc., in the basement. 

In 1874 the college purchased of the Oberlin 
School Board the old Union School-house, for five 
thousand five hundred dollars. It was built on 
ground rented to the district by the college, in close 
proximity to the college grounds. The building 
had become inadequate to the needs, and must 
either be enlarged or given up. This building af- 
forded six comfortable recitation-rooms, and a large 
room in the third story for the Cabinet ; hence the 
name Cabinet Hall. Upon the acquisition of this 



COLLEGE BULLDLNGS. 229 

building, the old recitation-rooms in Tappan Hall 
were deserted, a large writing-room was constructed 
by joining two of them, and the others were con- 
verted into music-rooms. When a new Professor 
of Chemistry was appointed in 1878, the lower floor 
of Cabinet Hall was devoted to his uses, giving a 
lecture-room, a working laboratory for students, with 
all needed appliances, a special laboratory for the 
professor, with balance-room and study adjoining. 
The Professor of Geology and Natural History has 
gradually extended his domain over the entire 
second story of the building, securing lecture-room, 
microscopical laboratory, general working room and 
study, with his cabinets above. While the scientific 
departments have been thus comfortably provided 
for, other classes have been excluded, and the old 
rooms in Tappan Hall, with some changes and re- 
pairs, have been resorted to. 

Before the purchase of the school -house, two 
buildings for recitations and similar purposes had 
already been erected on the college square. These 
are called " French Hall " and " Society Hall." They 
are brick, of two stories, alike in outward form, and 
giving six comfortable rooms in each. They were 
built in 1867-8. French Hall was named for the 
late Mr. Charles French, of Cleveland, who gave five 
thousand dollars toward the building, and Society 
Hall took its name from the literary society and li- 
brary-rooms which it contains. These buildings are 
to-day the chief dependence of the college for gen- 
eral recitation-rooms. French Hall contains four 
lecture-rooms, a room for drawing, and rooms for 



230 OBERLM. 

the apparatus in the department of physics. Society 
Hall gives three lecture-rooms, a college society 
room, and library-rooms. The libraries have out- 
grown the space devoted to them, and new books 
can be placed on the shelves only by retiring old 
ones. These two buildings are measurably con- 
venient and satisfactory. They were planned for a 
summer term instead of a winter term, and have 
required some changes to adjust them to the new 
order. They were built in costly times, and to- 
gether involved an expenditure of nineteen thou- 
sand dollars. 

The idea of Council Hall, the elegant and com- 
modious building of the Department of Theology, 
was first practically indulged in 1869. Plans and a 
location were agreed upon, and, during 187 1, about 
five thousand dollars were secured for the object — 
sufficient to lay the foundations. At the meeting of 
the National Council of Congregational Churches, 
held at Oberlin in November of that year, the corner- 
stone was laid, and by vote of the Council the name 
Council Hall was given for the building that was to 
be. The foundation was completed in the summer 
of 1872, and the walls and roof were completed 
in 1873. The work went on as money could be 
obtained. The generous friends at the East gave 
liberally, and, to complete the interior, the larger 
Congregational churches of Ohio came forward with 
subscriptions varying from two hundred to two 
thousand dollars each, the name of such church 
being placed over the room for which its subscrip- 
tion provided. The building, not fully completed, 




COUNCIL HALL. 



COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 23 1 

was dedicated at Commencement, 1874, and was 
opened for use the following autumn. Its front is 
one hundred and one feet, and its depth seventy 
feet. The height is four stories, including the Man- 
sard. Its cost, including the furniture of public and 
private rooms, was about sixty-eight thousand dol- 
lars. It provides two lecture-rooms, a chapel seat- 
ing three hundred, and divisible by a lifting partition 
into two lecture-rooms, a reading-room and reference 
library, and private rooms for sixty students. It is 
devoted exclusively to the Theological School, ex- 
cept an occasional, use of the chapel for social 
meetings. 

To provide board at the least possible cost for 
those who need such provision, the building on 
Main Street, opposite the north-east corner of the 
college square, was purchased in 1880, and fitted up 
for a boarding-hall. It has cost, including an addi- 
tional lot, five thousand dollars, and has been named 
"Stewart Hall," in memory of the early founder, and 
for the maintenance of his principles of economy. 
The house is furnished without rent to the matron, 
and she receives young women for board and room 
at two dollars a week, and young men, at table only, 
for two dollars. This goes beyond the early times 
in cheapness, when, with flour at two dollars and a 
half a barrel, beef two and a half cents a pound, 
and butter seven cents, students paid one dollar a 
week for their seat at table. The house receives 
sixty boarders, and is always full. 

This completes the list of the buildings erected 
for the college. The aggregate first cost of them 



232 OB E RUN. 

all, not including the dwelling-houses, is about one 
hundred and eighty thousand dollars. The cost of 
the buildings still in use was one hundred and sixty- 
three thousand. 

The only additional building, in immediate pros- 
pect, is that for which the old laboratory yields its 
place. It is to furnish, in its first story, a young 
ladies' assembly room of three hundred and fifty 
sittings ; and in the second, two rooms for the lit- 
erary societies of the young women. It is planned 
to cost eleven thousand dollars, of which the so- 
cieties have raised three thousand, and Miss Susan 
M. Sturges, of Mansfield, gives five thousand. 

The pressing needs to be provided for in future 
buildings, are ten more recitation and lecture rooms, 
rooms for instruction in drawing and art, libraries 
and cabinets, a building for the Conservatory of 
Music, the beginning of an art-gallery, and probably 
a dormitory building for young men, which shall 
provide for the more advanced college students, as 
Council Hall for the theological. 

LIBRARY, CABINET, AND APPARATUS. 

The library of the college has had a slow growth. 
It was begun the first year by the collection of such 
books as could be spared from the libraries of New 
England ministers, and from time to time received 
accessions of this kind, with an occasional gift of 
fresher books from some publisher. The deputa- 
tion to England brought back books of some value, 
and an occasional gift for the purpose has helped in 



LIBRA R V, CA BINE T, A ND A PPA RATUS. 233 

the growth. Originally a small fee was charged for 
the use of the library, and a majority of students 
saved the fee. For the last fifteen years every stu- 
dent has paid about a dollar a year for the library, 
charged in his bill of incidentals. This arrangement 
has promoted both the use of the library and its 
growth. A fee for special or extra examinations 
has also been charged, and this is added to the li- 
brary fund. From these funds the librarian's salary 
is paid, the library is kept in working order, and a 
few hundred dollars yearly are appropriated for new 
books. 

The literary societies of the different departments 
are united in a Union Library Association, to build 
up a common library. Their funds come from in- 
itiation fees, from an annual tax, and from the 
proceeds of a course of lectures and literary enter- 
tainments. Thus they add to their library several 
hundred volumes a year. The college library con- 
tains eleven or twelve thousand volumes, and the 
societies' library five thousand, and the two are so 
arranged as to present the appearance of a single 
library. 

The theological reference library in Council Hall 
is still small, containing about sixteen hundred vol- 
umes. No permanent fund is connected with any 
of the libraries, and the largest gift ever received 
was five hundred dollars. The present need is more 
books and more room for them. 

The Cabinet first took form under the hands of 
Professor Allen. He was himself a diligent col- 
lector, and he increased his personal collections by 



234 OBERLffi. 

exchanges. He imparted something of his own 
enthusiasm to numbers of his pupils, and as they 
scattered abroad they remembered the Cabinet. 
Missionaries in the Micronesian and Hawaiian 
Islands, in Western and South-eastern Africa, in 
India, China, and Japan, have sent collections illus- 
trating the natural and the social history of these 
diverse regions. Professor Allen himself spent six 
months in Jamaica as a collector, and the Cabinet 
shows the results in almost every department. At 
rare intervals a special appropriation has been made 
from the college funds to secure some rare speci- 
men, and at still rarer intervals gifts in money have 
been received. Thus the cabinet has been constant- 
ly improving until it serves very satisfactorily in the 
illustration of the different departments of Natural 
Science. More space is required for the display of 
the collection, and a fire-proof building for its pro- 
tection. 

The chemical laboratory is reasonably well pro- 
vided with apparatus. Facilities are afforded for 
whatever work the professor or the student needs to 
do. The rooms themselves are by no means ideal, 
but they serve all essential purposes. The micro- 
scopical laboratory is a recent institution, the instru- 
ments having been furnished by a gift of a thousand 
dollars for the purpose, from Mr. David Whitcomb, 
of Worcester, Mass. The arrangements are sufficient 
for a class of about twenty students at a time. This 
laboratory work is elective in the course, and the 
provision is at present adequate to the demand. 
In the department of Natural Philosophy, especially 



GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 235 

in the direction of dynamic electrictity, valuable ad- 
ditions to the apparatus have been made by Profes- 
sor Elisha Gray, in connection with his course of 
lectures. The latest results of experiment and dis- 
covery are very fully illustrated. An observatory 
moderately furnished has long been a need in the 
line of astronomical study. A refractor with seven- 
inch aperture was presented to the college, some 
years since, by Mr. Kenyon Cox, of New York; but 
for want of a place where it can be permanently 
mounted and safely kept, its use has been very 
limited. The time for these various improvements 
ought not to be far away. For several years past 
the manifest duty has been to seek for enlarged en- 
dowment, and these subordinate necessities have 
been studiously kept out of sight. 

GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 

The fifty years have yielded some results in the 
growth of the town as well as of the college. The 
first streets built up in the settlement were those 
which surround the college park ; and for many 
years almost all the houses were on these four streets, 
Main and Professor Streets running north and 
south, and College and Lorain Streets east and 
west. The centre of the Oberlin tract is at the 
north-east corner of the college park; but the first 
dwelling and the first college building were placed 
at the south-east corner, and this naturally deter- 
mined the centre of the settlement. Again the first 
mills were placed still farther south, where Main 



236 



OBERLIN. 



Street crosses Plum Creek, and thus the settlement 
was directed toward the south, a tendency which 
was never overcome. The position of the railroad 
station, in later times, has increased and confirmed 
the tendency. Other streets which were opened and 
occupied in the early times were Pleasant, Morgan 
and Mill Streets. All these were laid out and more 
or less occupied the first year or two, but were after- 
ward much extended. 

The only road which at first Mas vital to the con- 
vemence of the colony was the road to Elyria and 
upon this efforts were first expended. Citizens and 
students and professors subscribed labor, and per- 
formed the work in person. This road took the 
direction of College Street, intersecting Lorain 
Street, a mile and a half east. The plan first adopted 
in road-building was to cover the road-bed with a 
cross layer of rails split from the oak and ash trees 
along the way, and cover these rails with a top- 
dressing of clay and soil, obtained by digging a 
ditch on each side. While the rails continued 
sound, the road was quite a success, but as they 
decayed, the fragments must be taken out, and the 
original clay be made the foundation. Another 
ntty years may possibly disclose the art of con- 
structing, on such a foundation, roads which shall 
be comfortable for every season of the year 

The streets and sidewalks of the village have 
formed a formidable part of this road problem. 
I he first sidewalks were constructed of white-wood 
plank, three inches in thickness, laid end to end 
lengthwise of the walk, indicating the superabun- 



GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 237 

dance of timber. After a few years it was ascertained 
that the excessive thickness of the plank, and the 
contact of the ends, both tended to hasten decay. 
Thereafter the plank was made an inch and a half 
in thickness, and laid crosswise ; and most of our 
walks are still thus constructed — pine lumber hav- 
ing taken the place of the white-wood and the oak. 
Sandstone flagging from Berea and Amherst, since 
the construction of the railroad, has been extensively 
introduced. The first attempt at a more satisfactory 
roadway for the streets was a heavy oak plank cov- 
ering on Main Street, from College Street to the 
railroad station. Like all plank roads it was a com- 
fort at the outset, and a nuisance at the end. The 
next experiment was a layer of broken sandstone. 
It was soon ground into sand, and sunk out of sight 
in the clay. The latest method is a pavement of 
blocks of sandstone eight inches in thickness, with 
eight or ten square feet of surface. These blocks 
keep their place, and promise durability. Stone 
suitable for a macadamized road-bed is too distant 
and costly to be available. Such mention of the 
work of road-building will not seem out of place 
to those who bore the burdens of the early days. 

The great solution of the road problem for Ober- 
lin was found at length in the construction of the 
Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad, in 1852. 
The number of students in the college had been 
doubled by the scholarship endowment, and it was 
a formidable undertaking for them to get into 
town at the beginning of the Spring term, and out 
of town at the close of the Fall term. The Cleve- 



238 BERLIN. 

land and Columbus road had been built a year or 
two before, with a station at Wellington, nine miles 
from Oberlin. This was a great relief, but the road 
to Wellington was often intolerable. When the 
proposal was made of a railroad from Cleveland to 
Toledo, the people of Oberlin were awake to the 
opportunity. They sent out surveying parties east 
and west, to show that the road from Grafton to 
Norwalk could easily be made to pass through Ober- 
lin. The township subscribed twenty thousand 
dollars to the stock, and the citizens of Oberlin in- 
dividually as much more. Many who subscribed 
did it simply to promote a necessary public enter- 
prise, never expecting to see their money again. 
The road was deflected from a straight line suffi- 
ciently to touch Oberlin, and even proved a success 
financially, so that the original stockholders received 
their own with usury. It is now the Southern Di- 
vision of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. 
After some years the people of Elyria, on the North- 
ern Division, secured the transfer of the section be- 
tween Oberlin and Grafton, so that the intersection 
should be at Elyria, and thus the journey to Elyria 
is different from that of fifty years ago. 

The Oberlin colony had no municipal or corporate 
existence. It was simply a settlement in the town- 
ship of Russia, and could have no privileges or regu- 
lations apart from the township. In 1846, the vil- 
lage of Oberlin was incorporated by act of the legis- 
lature, and the Oberlin colony was no longer spoken 
of. The " Town Hall" was erected in 1870, at a 
cost of nearly twenty thousand dollars. In 1858, a 



GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 239 

stranger came into town to establish gas works, and 
the citizens subscribed the required stock. The en- 
terprise failed financially before it had afforded any 
light to the town, and Mr. Samuel Plumb, one of the 
citizens, took it up and carried it forward, the sub- 
scribers having surrendered their stock to aid in the 
enterprise. Thus Oberlin was provided with gas- 
works some years in advance of other and older 
towns in the neighborhood. The discovery of kero- 
sene a year later made the gas less necessary. 

The Oberlin Fire Department was organized, or 
rather equipped, in 1852, by the purchase of two 
hand-engines from Rochester, N. Y. These served 
the necessities of the town until 1865, when a Silsby 
steamer was bought for four thousand dollars. 

No very disastrous or sweeping fires have occurred 
in Oberlin. One of the business corners has been 
twice burned out, involving considerable loss to in- 
dividuals. The first burning was in 1848, when the 
printing office of Jas. M. Fitch, the publisher of The 
Oberlin Evangelist, was destroyed, and several less 
important business places. The buildings which 
took the place of those burned were somewhat bet- 
ter, but they were of wood, designed to be tempo- 
rary. In 1882 this corner was again burned, with 
much greater loss to various parties, but the result 
has been a great improvement to the town. A very 
fine business block now occupies the corner, and a 
similar fire on that corner is not likely to recur. 

The two-story frame hotel on the corner opposite 
was burned in 1865, and thus place was made for the 
better hotel and business block now occupying the 



240 OBERLIN. 



, 



corner. The third corner, which was the first occu- 
pied, embracing Oberlin Hall, the first college build- 
ing, has thus far escaped the catastrophe of fire, 
an immunity which cannot be expected another 
fifty years. Other fires have been limited to single 
buildings of more or less value. The most serious, 
perhaps, of them all was the burning of the original 
mills, at the corner of Main and Mill Streets, in 1846. 
They had been sold by the college some years be- 
fore. No serious fire has ever occurred in the col- 
lege buildings, but there have been many narrow 
escapes. 

The first school for children in the colony was 
taught by Miss Eliza Branch, now Mrs. George 
Clark, of Oberlin. Her school-room was the log 
house built by Mr. Pease. This was the primary 
department of the college. The first school-house 
was built in 1838 — a small frame house, of one story, 
placed on a corner of the lot occupied by the First 
Church. This old school-house still survives in a 
dwelling house on South Main Street, owned by E. 
M. Leonard. It was the only school-house until 
185 1, when a two-story brick house was built on the 
west side of Professor Street, over against Tappan 
Hall, sufficient for three departments ; and the 
school was graded accordingly. After a few years 
this was found inadequate, and the building was en- 
larged by adding two wings and carrying up the 
central part to three stories. Thus seven school- 
rooms were provided, and the school was more fully 
graded. In 1874 this building was sold to the col- 
lege, and a new Union school-house was built on 




SCHOOL HOUSE. 



GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 24 1 

the east side of Main Street, a little south of the 
principal business corners — a fine building containing 
eleven school-rooms and costing about forty thou- 
sand dollars. The school has again outgrown its 
quarters, and other rooms in the vicinity are occu- 
pied. The number of pupils enrolled in these 
schools is about seven hundred and fifty, and a su- 
perintendent and seventeen teachers are employed. 

The following superintendents have been em- 
ployed: Joseph H. Barnum, from 1854 to i860; 
Samuel Sedgwick, from i860 to 1869; Edward F. 
Moulton, from 1869 to 1876; Henry R. Chittenden, 
from 1876 to 1878; H. J. Clark, from 1878 to 1882; 
and George W. Waite, the present superintendent. 
The first four were graduates of Oberlin College, 
Mr. Clark, of Western Reserve, and Mr. Waite of 
Amherst. 

The churches and church buildings were briefly 
described in a preceding chapter. 

The earliest cemetery was on the south bank of 
Plum Creek, and west of Main Street, and the first 
burials were near the street, a little north of the lot 
occupied by the Episcopal church. After a few 
years the graves were removed from the lots on the 
street, and only the land in the rear was occupied. 
In 1863 grounds about three fourths of a mile south- 
west of the village were purchased by a Cemetery As- 
sociation, and carefully laid out and adorned. Since 
that time the old ground, which was leased to the 
Oberlin Society by the college for cemetery purposes, 
has been surrendered to the college, and most of the 
graves have been removed to the new cemetery. 



242 BERLIN. 

The first two years the mail for Oberlin came and 
went by South Amherst, six miles north, and was 
carried in a small hand-bag, by Harvey Gibbs, the 
first post-master. He built the first post-office, 
which was on North Main Street, over against Tap- 
pan Hall. The walk from Tappan Hall eastward 
across the park was constructed by the students, 
for the purpose, chiefly, of going to the post-office. 

Mr. Brewster Pelton built and kept the first hotel, 
a log building, on the east side of the lot occupied 
by the present hotel. No strong drink or tobacco 
was furnished at his house, but after some anxiety 
and discussion it was decided to be " impracticable" 
to keep a hotel without furnishing tea and coffee. 
In the spring of 1834 he built a large two-story 
frame house on the corner, and this was the princi- 
pal hotel until it was burned in 1865. For the pur- 
pose of securing a suitable hotel, in the absence of 
business sufficient to sustain it, the citizens, in 1867, 
subscribed the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars, 
and the college a like sum, to encourage the enter- 
prise. Mr. Henry Viets accepted the proposal, 
received the money, giving to Oberlin College a 
mortgage of five thousand dollars on the property, 
the condition of which is that a suitable building 
shall be provided, and a hotel kept in a satisfactory 
manner, and that all intoxicating drinks and danc- 
ing parties shall be excluded. Thus the hotel, called 
until recently the " Park House," was built, and on 
these conditions it is carried on. 

The private dwellings of the town began in a 
humble way. After the first year few, if any, log 



GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 243 

houses were built, but the frame houses were small, 
and most of them were so constructed as to suggest 
future enlargement. They were of one story, or a 
story and a half, and the cornice was often lack- 
ing on one gable, suggesting a front or main part. 
One house, near the corner of Main and Lorain 
Streets, a story and a half in height, exhibited, for 
some years, a solitary plate of a two-story building, 
high in the air, a symbol of the owner's confidence 
in the future. In the majority of cases, the hope 
of enlargement was not realized. The lacking cor- 
nice was at length added, and a pleasant porch was 
constructed over the door. But the enlargement 
came with a new generation, and the work of ad- 
ding a front or main part to the humble dwellings 
of the early day is still going on. At present the 
town is conspicuous for the large number of unpre- 
tentious but pleasant and homelike dwellings, with 
spacious yards attractive with trees and grass. 

The Soldiers' Monument was built in 1870, by a 
contribution of four thousand dollars, in which citi- 
zens and students and alumni and friends all united. 
The generous contractor did not limit the expendi- 
ture to the amount placed at his disposal. The cost 
was about a thousand dollars more than the sub- 
scription. 

The college square in 1834 was a field of stumps 
surrounded by a Virginia " worm" fence. In 1836, 
as Tappan Hall came into use, the students occu- 
pying it waged war upon the stumps, and under 
axe and fire they rapidly disappeared. Soon after- 
ward, students from the East, whose life had not 



244 OBERLIN. 

been a constant warfare with trees, led in the en- 
terprise of replanting the square with young trees 
from the forest, and the largest trees upon the 
square, excepting the historical elm, are the result 
of that first planting. An annual tree-planting was 
established, and the good work was continued, 
Evergreens were added fifteen or twenty years later, 
by a special movement set on foot by Professor 
Peck. 

The crooked rail fence had given place some } r ears 
before to a stately post and rail fence, of oak tim- 
ber, painted white. The expense was provided for 
jointly by the college and the people of the town. 
When this fence began to fail, a hedge of the Osage 
orange took its place, and when, in the advance of 
civilization, hedges and fences became unnecessary, 
the hedge which had been trained with so much 
care was exterminated. The grading and general 
improvement of 1881 cost two thousand dollars, the 
citizens subscribing one thousand, and the college 
furnishing an equal amount. 

There was no early necessity for a bank in Ober- 
lin, or rather there was no capital to provide such a 
convenience. The " First National Bank" was es- 
tablished in 1863, with Mr. Samuel Plumb as princi- 
pal stockholder and president. Upon the recent 
expiration of its charter, it was reorganized as the 
" Citizens' National Bank." The other business op- 
erations of the village are such as belong to a col- 
lege town, with very little in the way of manufac- 
turing interest. A flourin^-mill, saw-mill, and two 
planing-mills, two carriage factories and a furniture 



GROWTH OT THE COLONY. 245 

factory, give the extent of business in this form. 
The chief support of business is the presence of 
hundreds of students who must be fed and clothed, 
and the families that naturally gather at such a 
centre of education. 

Book stores are among the most conspicuous of 
our business establishments. Besides the college 
some special schools have been carried on here for 
many years — a telegraphic school and commercial 
and writing schools. The outside public often con- 
nect these special schools, in their thought, with the 
college. The college has no connection with any of 
these, except a single writing school. 

The town has supported no saloons, and there is 
a very earnest purpose among the people that no 
saloon shall ever flourish here. A dubious drug 
store has caused them some anxiety, and a single 
tobacco store has had a patronage beyond the bene- 
fits it has conferred. 

A printing establishment was among the early 
business institutions of the place. The Catalogue of 
1834 was printed at Elyria, of '35 and '36 at Cleve- 
land, and of '38 at Cuyahoga Falls. The college 
was too busy, or too poor, to publish a Catalogue in 
'37. The Catalogue of 1839 was printed at Oberlin 
by James Steele, and the work was well done. Mr. 
Steele was also printing the Evangelist at the time, 
the first volume of which was issued that year. He 
established the office while he was a student in the 
Theological Seminary. The Evangelist was an eight 
page quarto, issued every two weeks for twenty-four 
years, at one dollar a year. In 1844 James M. Fitch, 



246 OBERLIN. 

having returned from the Jamaica Mission, be- 
came publisher of the Evangelist, and carried on the 
printing and book business until his death, in 1867. 
Besides the Evangelist, and from time to time a vil- 
lage paper, he printed on his hand-press and pub- 
lished several volumes, among them, in 1846-47, two 
volumes of Theology, by Professor Finney, of six 
hundred octavo pages each. 

Since Mr. Fitch's day, two and sometimes three 
printing establishments have been maintained here. 
The earliest village paper that attained permanence 
was the Lorain County News, now the Oberlin 
News, first issued in i860. The first editor was A. 
B. Nettleton, then a student, afterward a soldier, and 
now proprietor of the Minnesota Tribune. J. B. T. 
Marsh took up the pen laid down by Mr. Nettleton, 
afterwards entering the army, and returning again 
to his editorial work. Later he was eight years edi- 
tor of The Advance at Chicago, and is now treas- 
urer of Oberlin College. The Oberlin News, through 
many changes, has held on its way, and has attained 
a permanent character and success under its present 
proprietor, Mr. W. H. Pearce. 

In 1868 Rev. W. C. French, rector of the Episco- 
pal church, began the publication of The Standard 
of the Cross, at Oberlin, and continued it five years, 
when he removed his office to Cleveland. Other 
papers and other volumes, of more or less impor- 
tance, among them the papers published by the stu- 
dents, have been printed at the Oberlin offices. 
Thus printing and publishing, though less conspicu- 
ous here than in some other university towns, has 



GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 247 

been among the prominent industries of the place. 
The later volumes published at Oberlin by Mr. E. J. 
Goodrich have in general been printed in Eastern 
cities. 

The first physician in Oberlin, after Dr. Dascomb's 
early service in that capacity, was Dr. Alexander 
Steele, who came in 1836, and continued his profes- 
sional work until his death in 1872. Dr. Isaac Jen- 
nings came in 1839; tnen followed Dr. Otis Boise, 
Dr. Homer Johnson, Dr. William Bunce, Dr. Dudley 
Allen, and others later. Dr. Jennings was a thor- 
oughly educated physician, holding the honorary 
degree of M.D. from Yale, and had had a successful 
practice of some years ; but becoming convinced 
that medicine was harmful instead of helpful, he had 
entirely discarded it. He called his system " Ortho- 
pathy," upon the theory that nature, even in disease, 
was doing the best possible, and could not be as- 
sisted, except by judicious nursing. He would visit 
any one that called for him, and give suggestions, 
but no medicine, and made no charges. He pub- 
lished several volumes setting forth his views. He 
died in 1875, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. 



CHAPTER X. 

COLLEGE WORK AND STUDENT LIFE — THE 
EARLIER AND THE LATER. 

The general view of the college work set forth in 
the preceding pages would perhaps suggest the in- 
quiry whether it had not involved so much of out- 
side interests, and so many diverting influences, as 
seriously to interfere with its value and effectiveness 
in the definite work of education. Has the college 
been able to maintain regular and systematic and 
thorough scholastic work in the midst of these vari- 
ous movements and interests? If such an impres- 
sion or doubt has been produced, let it be remem- 
bered that a record of fifty years, crowded into a 
few pages, necessarily involves a concentration of 
events which does not belong to the actual expe- 
rience ; events separated by years in the actual life, 
stand side by side in the record. Thus what appear 
as multiplied perturbations have in fact occurred at 
rare intervals — one or two perhaps in a single gener- 
ation of student life. 

Still another suggestion occurs. With the most 
careful arrangements to concentrate the thought and 
attention of a body of students upon their studies, 
diversions of some sort will occur. If they do not 
come from without, they will spring up from among 
themselves. Interest in the affairs of the commu- 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LLFEl. 249 

nity, the country and the world is often absorbing-, 
but not more so than interest in college politics, in 
such profound and weighty questions as which class 
shall win the field in the rush, or which " nine" or 
which club shall bear off the honors in the matched 
game or regatta. There will be agitations of some 
kind in such a mass of active, fervid human nature. 
It is quite possible that the more grave and weighty 
the concerns which press upon such a body, the less 
the effervescence may be. Efforts are sometimes 
made to exclude national politics from college life. 
But the question, who shall be president of the Re- 
public? is no more distracting than who shall be 
president of a college society ? and it is far more 
worthy of interest and attention. The gravity of 
any matter of concern tends to give seriousness and 
steadiness to those who cherish it. There are con- 
cerns pertaining to the country and the world from 
which no one, young or old, in student life or in ac- 
tive life, can afford to be excluded. An important 
factor in all education consists in giving to such 
interests their proper place and thought, and strong 
and well-balanced character can no more be secured 
apart from such influences, than vigorous plant life 
without light and air. Those who planted Oberlin, 
and those who have since had responsibility in its 
direction, have not felt at liberty to provide for 
sheltering the young people from the interests 
and excitements of the country and the world. 

There was very early a suspicion abroad that the 
educational work at Oberlin was to be narrow and 
superficial. The name " Collegiate Institute" per- 



250 OBERLIN. 

haps suggested an ambitious academy instead of 
a modest college. Co-education was regarded as 
indicating the same drift, the " burning of the class- 
ics" fixed the impression, and the supposed ultraisms 
and heresies that followed rendered the investiga- 
tion of the facts unnecessary. Newspaper writers 
assumed the impression as fact, and the general 
public trusted the newspapers. It would perhaps 
be regarded as a bold statement, that there was 
never any foundation for the assumed fact. The 
first Freshman class was admitted in 1834, and the 
preparation of the candidates was such that they 
would unquestionably have been admitted at any 
eastern college. So persistent was the misrepresen- 
tation, that in 1839 an appendix to the Catalogue 
was published, giving a comparison of the courses 
at Yale and at Oberlin. In science and literature 
and philosophy, the two courses were almost identi- 
cal. In languages the Yale course gave considerably 
more Latin, and the Oberlin course an excess of 
Greek and Hebrew which more than balanced the 
deficiency. The facts were that a student in good 
standing at Oberlin found no difficulty in entering 
ad enndem any New England college. Nothing less 
than this was to be expected, in view of the fact 
that the leading professors at Oberlin were men who 
had graduated with honors — in two cases, the high- 
est honors — at Williams and Amherst and Yale. It 
is true the course in languages at Oberlin was modi- 
fied by excluding the most objectionable classic 
authors, especially Latin poets, and substituting 
New Testament Greek, and Hebrew in part. In- 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LLFE. 25 I 

stead of Horace, George Buchanan's Latin version 
of the Psalms was announced, but when the time 
came for its use only a few copies could be gath- 
ered up in this country and abroad. At length 
such editions of the poets were published that they 
could be introduced with propriety into classes of 
which young women were members, and the differ- 
ences of the Oberlin course disappeared. The re- 
quirements for admission have been increased, dur- 
ing the progress of the college, by a full year's study, 
and a similar change has taken place in the colleges 
throughout the land. 

The establishment and maintenance of a large 
preparatory department or academic school at Ober- 
lin has been essential to its work. Such schools have 
existed in connection with all Western colleges. In 
the absence of academies adequate to the work, and 
from the fact that the high schools of later days 
have rarely undertaken it, the college has been com- 
pelled to prepare its own students. The work at 
Oberlin began in this way, and has continued until 
the present time. Five sixths of the present Fresh- 
man class have received the whole or a part of their 
preparation here. Besides being a preparatory 
school, this department provides for a large number 
of students who do not contemplate a full course, 
but desire preparation for business or teaching. One 
incidental result of gathering these persons in the 
school is that large numbers of them fall under the 
attractions of study, and within a year take up the 
preparation for a college course. A large proportion 



2 $2 OBERLIN. 

of those who enter the course here are drawn from 
this class of students. 

To Oberlin this large preparatory school has prob- 
ably been more essential than to any other college. 
By no other arrangement could large numbers of 
students have been gathered ; and the large num- 
bers were necessary to furnish an inviting field of 
labor to Mr. Finney, and others who came at the 
same time. The influence of the school could not 
have been what it has been without these numbers. 

From the beginning, care has been taken not to 
exhaust the strength of the college professors upon 
the preparatory department. Only in very rare in- 
stances has a preparatory class been instructed by 
a college professor. The policy has been to confine 
each professor to his own general department, and 
as far as possible to his own specific work. Theo- 
logical professors have very rarely been called to 
college classes, nor have college professors taught in 
the preparatory department. Thus students do not 
in the beginning of their course feel that they have 
received all that the college can do for them. Pass- 
ing from one department to another they come 
tinder new instructors, almost as really as in going 
to a different school. 

To avoid this difficulty, which besets young col- 
leges with preparatory departments, the preparatory 
school, from the beginning, was carried on by plac- 
ing a principal in charge, and giving him one or 
perhaps two permanent teachers, who should take 
the advanced classes in laii£uaores ; while other 
classes were provided for by drawing their teachers 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LLFE. 253 

from the large body of advanced students in the 
college and theological departments. Rarely was 
more than one class given to a student. It is quite 
probable that there were disadvantages in this ar- 
rangement. The teachers would often lack experi- 
ence, and could not often acquire the force and 
authority of one familiar with the ground, and who 
carried with him the weight and momentum which 
years confer. This was in part counterbalanced by 
the presence and general influence of professors in 
the other departments, which was diffused through- 
out the institution. The whole school has been 
managed as one establishment, and the wisdom and 
influence of the Faculty as a whole has permeated 
the entire body, securing advantages not to be found 
in a moderately equipped academy or high school. 

To the students employed as teachers the arrange- 
ment is specially profitable. The compensation is 
small, originally twelve and a half to eighteen and 
three fourths cents an hour, later thirty-five to sixty- 
five cents, but the discipline and experience are more 
than the compensation. It gives the student-teach- 
er an opportunity to test his own knowledge, and 
is often a training for his life-work. The college has 
thus, to a considerable extent, brought up its own 
professors, and has furnished professors for many 
other colleges. By this means, and by teaching in 
vacations, the teaching impulse and faculty have 
been quite widely developed among Oberlin stu- 
dents, and to this influence, in part, their tendency to 
establish colleges and schools may, doubtless, be 
traced. 



254 BERLIN. 

In later years the number of permanent teachers 
in the Preparatory Department has been much in- 
creased, but more than twenty students, young men 
and women, are still employed. These furnish a 
natural link between the Faculty and the body of 
students, to preclude the painful separation which 
sometimes occurs ; and this result comes spontane- 
ously, without any intentional effort. The pupils 
in the preparatory department are under the same 
general regulations as in the other departments. 
They have never been gathered in a school-room to 
pursue their studies under the eye of a teacher. 
They prepare their lessons in their private rooms, 
and come together for recitations only. None can 
be received who have not sufficient maturity and 
self-control to prosper under this arrangement. 

The college work has been essentially like that in 
other American colleges, with a similar apportion- 
ment of studies. Latin and Greek and Mathematics 
have characterized the first part of the course, and 
Science and Literature and Philosophy the latter 
part. From the first, special prominence was given 
to philosophical studies and inquiries. The presence 
and preaching and teaching of such men as Presi- 
dent Mahan and Professors Finney, Morgan and 
others, awoke an interest in this direction. Besides, 
it was a time of great quickening of speculative 
thought in the country. The New School Theology 
was claiming attention, and arousing the country to 
earnest inquiry. 

The antislavery movement, too, was not simply a 
movement in practical action, but it was laying its 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LLEE. 2$$ 

foundations in great principles of ethical philosophy; 
and Oberlin became inevitably one of the centres 
of this speculative activity. President Mahan was 
a strong thinker in this direction, and impressed 
himself very decidedly upon the whole school. At 
his coming there was no class in college in advance 
of the Freshman, and he began a course of philos- 
ophy with them, and carried them through the three 
remaining years with such authors as Abercrombie, 
Cousin, Dugald Stewart and others, followed by a 
year's course of lectures. The whole school shared 
more or less in the enthusiasm, and received an im- 
pulse which it has never quite lost. In the Cata- 
logue of 1835, no definite place in the course is 
given to these studies, but the statement of studies 
closes with the remark, " Intellectual and Moral 
Philosophy extensively." In the following Cata- 
logues it is confined to the Junior and Senior 
years. 

Mr. Finney's work in the Theological Department 
was equally effective ; and the difference between 
these two prominent teachers, which was soon devel- 
oped, as to the " nature and foundation of moral 
obligation," increased the interest. No parties were 
ever formed around these diverse views ; but what- 
ever may be said at this day about the feebleness of 
the original Graham diet, Oberlin students, in the 
line of intellectual nourishment, were fed on strong 
meat. To discuss first principles became their pas- 
time. They rested on their hoes in the cornfield to 
look into the inner consciousness, and the manual 
labor cause suffered in the interests of philosophy. 



2 56 BERLIN. 

The demand for books was quite limited. Kant, 
Coleridge, Cousin, Locke and similar authors were 
called for, but the want of libraries of history, gem 
eral literature and science was not greatly felt. 
Possibly it was, in part, the absence of the books 
that prevented the existence of the want. It is true 
there were at that day great readers among the stu- 
dents, in the various lines of literature, but the ten- 
dency was not general. A student of that period, 
burdened with the duty of an essay, rarely went to 
the library for relief. His first impulse was to draw 
upon the resources of his own consciousness. 

In these respects there is a change. Science and 
literature and history have come to occupy the 
places which belong to them, and the students are 
drawn toward the libraries ; but we may hope the 
day is far distant when they shall cease to have a 
lively interest in the study of philosophy. The 
study of the ancient languages, Latin, Greek and 
Hebrew, has always held a prominent place, and 
linguistic study is quite as prominent to-day as at 
any time in the past. Natural Science has come 
into great prominence in the world during the fifty 
years, and it has made a much wider place for itself 
in our course than was originally assigned it. The 
modern languages, French and German, have claimed 
their share of attention. 

It was the purpose of the founders, and of the 
men who joined the enterprise in 1835, that Biblical 
study should be a prominent feature of the course ; 
and the early deviation from the general college 
course was in this direction. The Greek and He- 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LITE. 2$? 

brew Scriptures were to take the place of some of 
the classic authors. This arrangement was earnestly 
adopted, and there was no division of feeling on the 
subject. It was a very common thing for the trus- 
tees at their meetings, in the earlier years, to pro- 
pose to the Faculty the inquiry whether this idea 
had been fully and thoroughly maintained. The 
first difficulty encountered was, that it placed the 
college in misadjustment with other colleges. Ober- 
lin graduates entering the Theological Department 
would have had more than a year of Hebrew, while 
those from other colleges had none. In going to 
other theological seminaries a similar difficulty was 
encountered. Then it was not clear that those who 
were not to enter the ministry could wisely devote 
a year or more to the study of Hebrew. Similar 
difficulties were felt in regard to the New Testament 
Greek, but they were not so pressing. The result 
at length was that the Hebrew was committed wholly 
to the Theological Department, and the New Testa- 
ment Greek was limited to a term or two, and more 
recently has been mostly discontinued. 

Through all the fifty years there has been persist- 
ent and careful attention to the study of the Scrip- 
tures. Every class, in all the literary departments, 
has its hour a week for this study; and it is not in- 
troduced as an extra, but takes the place, for the day, 
of one of the regular studies. The Bible course is 
so arranged as to secure on the part of the pupils 
some intelligent apprehension of the contents of the 
Scriptures, the last year being devoted to a consid- 
eration of the leading facts and doctrines of the 



258 OB E KLIN. 






Christian faith, with a free and open discussion of 
doubts and difficulties. The study of Christian evi- 
dences has held its usual place in the course. 

The requirements upon the student in the way of 
attendance upon religious services have always been 
two church services on the Sabbath, and daily even- 
ing prayers at the chapel. As in New England 
colleges, six o'clock morning prayers were originally 
held for the young men, but attendance upon family 
prayers at their various boarding places was at 
length substituted. Students select for themselves 
the church which they will attend, but the attend- 
ance must continue for a term. No college church 
exists, nor is any regular Sunday service held for 
students. A special voluntary gathering is some- 
times called. 

In 1835 the "Thursday Lecture" was established, 
which students were required to attend. It was a 
religious lecture, not specially a college arrangement, 
but an appointment of the church, held at a late 
hour of the afternoon. As students were required 
to attend, and the lecture was given by Professor 
Finney, or by some other professor, it came at 
length to be regarded as a college appointment, and 
as such it has been continued to the present time. 
Within the last ten years it has ceased to be a dis- 
tinctively religious lecture. Each professor, in his 
turn, takes his own topic, literary, scientific, histori- 
cal or practical ; and the hour is regarded by the 
students as an occasion of interest and profit. A 
lecturer is frequently invited from abroad. 

A weekly prayer meeting is appointed for each 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LLFE. 2 59 

class, in all departments, led by a professor or other 
teacher. Attendance upon this is voluntary. Occa- 
sionally, in seasons of special interest, a class ar- 
ranges for itself a daily half hour meeting. No 
meeting continues beyond an hour. The " Young 
People's Meeting" is an appointment of long stand- 
ing — not strictly a college arrangement nor the ap- 
pointment of any church. It is a meeting held on 
Monday evening immediately after the supper hour, 
to which all the young people of the place are in- 
vited, with a permanent leader, usually one of the 
younger professors. The meeting generally gathers 
some hundreds, mostly students. The chapel of 
Council Hall is the regular place of meeting. When 
this becomes too strait the college chapel is resort- 
ed to. 

It is a peculiarity of college arrangements at 
Oberlin that every recitation or lecture is opened, 
after the roll call, by a brief prayer, in which the 
teacher leads, scarcely longer than an ordinary bless- 
ing at table, or by the singing of a verse or two, in 
which the class chorister leads. The general culti- 
vation of music, and the pocket hymn-book, make 
the singing possible and pleasant. This practice 
came in with Mr. Finney, in 1835 — not by any ordi- 
nance, but by spontaneous adoption, and the cus- 
tom has made the law. 

At Oberlin, as everywhere, many features of the 
college life are determined by the students them- 
selves, within certain limitations. They organize 
and conduct their own literary societies, with the 
provision that there shall be no secret organization 



26o OBERLIN. 

or fraternity, that no society shall embrace both 
young men and young women, and that the meet- 
ings shall not be continued after ten o'clock in 
the evening. Of the permanent societies, of long 
standing, there are three among the young men 
of the college classes, and two among the young 
women. These are devoted exclusively to literary 
exercises, and are conducted with great vigor and 
decorum and success. In some of these, failures to 
meet appointments are so rare that they are said 
not to occur at all. Offensive rivalries among the 
societies have been almost unknown. 

The three societies of young men unite in fitting 
up and occupying a single room, as do the two so- 
cieties of young women. More rooms are desirable, 
and will probably soon be attained. The five so- 
cieties are again united in building up a single 
library, under the charge of the " Union Library 
Association." 

The " Oratorical Association" is an organization 
of the college classes to elect speakers for a yearly 
" Home Contest." The successful speaker appears 
again in a " State Contest" in which several colleges 
of the State are represented, and the fortunate com- 
petitor finally represents the State in an " Inter-State 
Contest," where several Western States are repre- 
sented. This Association has existed for several 
years past, but whether the benefits equal the out- 
lay does not seem to be determined in the judg- 
ment of either students or Faculty. 

The history of college journalism at Oberlin is 
brief. The Oberlin Student's Monthly, a magazine 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LLFE. 26 1 

of thirty-two pages, was published by the literary 
societies for two and a half years, beginning with 
November, 1858. The war made such drafts upon 
editors and subscribers that it was discontinued in 
1 86 1. The Obcrlin Review, a quarto of sixteen 
pages, was begun in 1873. It is published by the 
" Union" of the literary societies, each of the five 
societies appointing an editor, and the Union an 
editor-in-chief. The paper has been conducted, in 
general, with ability and dignity, and in harmony 
with the interests and honor of the college, and has 
been financially successful. 

The social opportunities of Oberlin students are 
naturally provided for in the organization of the 
college. It is one of the advantages of the system 
that it secures a good degree of social culture and en- 
joyment without any expenditure of time or thought 
or effort. The student who holds on his way, 
passing his fellow-students on the sidewalk, meeting 
them in the recitation room and the chapel, will re- 
ceive the essential benefit of cultivated society, even 
if he should attend no social gatherings, nor make 
any personal calls. Like the sunlight and the atmos- 
phere it is diffused around him, without his responsi- 
bility. He will not grow into a recluse, nor find himself 
disqualified for general society, whenever the time 
shall come. But every student who becomes identi- 
fied with a class will find further social opportunities 
opening to him — an annual or semi-annual class 
gathering, an invitation with his class to the home of 
his professor for an evening, or an hour or two at a 
"social" in the church parlors. One wholesome 



262 O BERLIN. 






social habit established in the early times has come 
down to us. Only the early hours are devoted to 
social entertainment. Even in general gatherings 
with which college arrangements have nothing to 
do, the hour of ten seems to be regarded as the 
natural limit. 

In the matter of recreations and sports, the stu- 
dents, with reasonable limitations and suggestions, 
arrange for themselves. There is an Athletic Asso- 
ciation having in charge a ball ground, and with the 
large number of students games are arranged be- 
tween different classes and groups which have suffi- 
cient interest, so that it is not necessary to visit 
other colleges in the pursuit of sport. The Associa- 
tion has sometimes received and entertained another 
college club, on its travels, but its champion " nine" 
does not go abroad in term time. There are no 
boating facilities within reach at Oberlin ; thus all 
the questions which elsewhere arise, in connection 
with such privileges, are easily disposed of. 

The gymnasium made its way slowly at Oberlin, 
because it seemed to be inconsistent with the manual 
labor idea ; but after various attempts, an unpre^ 
tending establishment with moderate equipments is 
open to young men, and a better one for young 
women. The exercise is at present voluntary, but 
classes are organized under competent teachers, and 
all who desire can have the benefit without charge. 

Sedentary games of chance and skill were formerly 
prohibited at Oberlin, but the restriction has been 
removed except in the case of cards. To visit a bil- 
liard saloon is still reckoned a misdemeanor. 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LIFE. 263 

The general discipline of the college was at the 
beginning conformed to the parental idea, and it 
has not been materially changed. The idea has 
been accepted that the college is a place where 
character and habits are to be formed, as well as 
instruction imparted. No strict personal surveillance 
was ever undertaken. The student has been thrown 
greatly upon his own responsibility, with the under- 
standing that his continued enjoyment of the privi- 
leges of the school must depend upon his satisfactory 
deportment. No study hours have ever been pre- 
scribed, except as limiting the time of ball-playing 
and other sports upon the college grounds, and of 
social calls upon the young women of the college. 
Each student studies when and where he pleases, 
provided he reports himself, with due preparation, 
at the appointed hour. The regulations are few and 
obvious, such as are necessary to the comfortable 
association of such a body of students. There is a 
special requirement, which was once peculiar to 
Oberlin College, but is not now, to abstain from the 
use of tobacco. The rule is coeval with the college, 
and the time has never come when it seemed advis- 
able to dispense with it. The Faculty are a unit in 
support of the rule, and have always been. At the 
beginning, the maintenance of the rule was not diffi- 
cult ; very few young men came who had formed the 
habit. The use of tobacco has been greatly extended 
in the country within the last twenty-five years, and 
many young men come with the habit fastened upon 
them. They come with a full understanding of the 
requirement, and often for the purpose, on their own 



264 OBERLIN. 

part or that of parents and guardians, of recovery 
from the habit. Frankness is encouraged. No 
disgrace is visited upon the one who fails. If with- 
out deceit, or attempts at imposition, he avows his 
failure, he receives an honorable dismission and can 
go where he will encounter no prohibition of the 
kind. Every year brings more or less of such failure ; 
and it is too much to hope that there are no cases 
which escape observation. But the rule has been 
maintained with a good degree of success; and since 
the principle has been adopted in government 
schools, in this country and abroad, as well as in 
some others, we may hold on our way with even 
more courage. It would seem that every school 
open to young women might insist upon the princi- 
ple as a matter of essential decency. 

Undoubtedly, the general reputation of Oberlin 
tended at first to bring to the school those of serious 
character and aims. But for many years past it is 
not probable that those who have come have differed 
essentially from the students gathered from the 
same regions in other schools. The influence of 
wholesome traditions has been helpful. The moral 
atmosphere has been measurably clear and a health- 
ful condition has been maintained. There have 
been anxieties and disappointments, but on the 
whole those upon whom the responsibility of direc- 
tion has rested have had occasion to rejoice in the 
results. The exceptions to good order and earnest 
work have been comparatively few, and the product 
in genuine character and purpose has been most 
gratifying. There has never been a time when the 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LIFE. 265 

overwhelming sentiment of the school was not on 
the side of good order and wholesome discipline, and 
this has to a great extent made the manifestation of 
authority unnecessary. Nothing has occurred in 
the fifty years that could take the name of a college 
rebellion. There has been no organized resistance 
to authority. Only twice in the fifty years has any- 
thing occurred to which the term "hazing" could be 
applied. The first case took place more than forty 
years ago, when several prominent young men in 
college entrapped and punished with stripes a vile 
youth who had sent anonymously most disgraceful 
and infamous missives to worthy young women in 
the school. They were reputable and conscientious 
young men, but their indignation carried them away. 
When they had time for consideration, although they 
were entirely unknown, five of them came before 
the church of which they were members, and con- 
fessed their own part in the transaction. As they 
apprehended, the confession cost them dear. In a 
criminal prosecution which followed they were fined 
a hundred dollars each, and costs, and in a civil 
prosecution, damages were laid upon them to the 
amount of three hundred dollars each. This case 
has been quoted within the past few years as having 
a bearing against co-education. What, exactly, the 
argument is, does not appear. The second case 
occurred five years ago, too recently to need to be 
recalled. It was a painful one, and the treatment of 
it was decisive and effectual. One such case in fifty 
years ought to be enough. The earnest life which 
came in with the founding, and which has in a good 



266 OBERLW. 

degree continued to the present hour, has proved 
a safeguard against many of the follies which tend 
to spring up in college life, and the aim of the admin- 
istration, which has been measurably successful, has 
been to retain the convictions and sympathies of 
the students on the side of the order of the school. 

No monitorial system has ever been adopted : each 
young man reports weekly, in writing, to the pro- 
fessor in charge, his success or failure in attendance 
upon prescribed duties. The young women report 
to the lady principal. This method might not be 
always wisest, but it has served the purpose so well 
that it has continued until the present time. Each 
student is marked for his performance in recitations 
and examinations, and a record is kept, but this record 
is not made the basis of any grading of the class, or 
of a distribution of honors. Nor is any announcement 
of standing made at any time. The record is for 
the private information of teachers and pupils and 
guardians. A certain standard must be attained as 
a condition of advancement ; beyond this the record 
has no formal bearing. 

The college has no special honors to distribute, 
and no prizes. The commencement programme is 
arranged alphabetically, and position has no signifi- 
cance. With the exception of one or two years, the 
entire classes have appeared at commencement with 
their orations or essays. As classes enlarge, this 
will be impracticable, and some selection must be 
made. Thus far the number has in no case exceeded 
forty, and four or five minutes is the time allowed to 
each. There is no question that to a Commencement 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LIFE. 26? 

audience this arrangement is more interesting than 
to have a few speakers, and twelve or fifteen min- 
utes for each. They come to see the young per- 
formers and hear their voices, not so much to be 
instructed. Yet there is a certain special interest in 
seeing how much can be said in five minutes, and 
the discipline is good. Commencement at Oberlin 
has always brought an audience — not many visitors 
from great distances, but the friends of the graduates, 
and the people from the immediate neighborhood. 
In the earliest days the great tent, which would 
shelter three thousand, was filled, and afterward the 
church, and often there were almost as many without 
as within. The novelty has passed away but there 
is still a sufficient audience. 

The college confers the usual degrees, but has 
done little in the way of honorary degrees. There 
has been no positive action by trustees or Faculty in 
opposition to such degrees, only a traditional repug- 
nance. Even the common degrees, in course, have 
been sometimes held in disrepute among the students. 
Half of the class of 1838, which numbered twenty, 
declined to receive the degree, and the President 
announced, at the commencement, that those who 
desired the degree could receive their diplomas at 
the college office. No other instance of such scru- 
pulousness has appeared. The degrees have always 
been conferred in the simplest manner, without any 
attempt at Latin discourse. The earlier diplomas 
were in English, and written by hand, but when 
plates were procured a Latin text appeared. 

The honorary degrees thus far conferred by the 



263 OBERLIN. 

college are of two kinds, the honorary A.M., given 
to such students of the college as make good prog- 
ress in their course but failed to graduate, and 
afterward secured a good standing for themselves in 
literary or professional work ; and the same degree 
granted to those holding the diploma of the " Liter- 
ary Course" who have attained a similar standing. 
The Literary Course at present carries with it no 
degree. No doctorate, in any line, has ever been 
conferred by the college. Neighboring institutions 
have sometimes shown their good-will in this way 
towards Oberlin men, but thus far without any re- 
ciprocity. 

The student's expenses have always been moderate 
at Oberlin. It was a prominent idea with the found- 
ers to provide a school where young men, at least, 
without money, but with courage and industry and 
economy, could make their own way and come out 
without a load of debt. In the earlier history of the 
college this was to a great extent realized. Prob- 
ably a majority of the graduates of the first twenty- 
five years thus made their own way. The facilities 
for manual labor and for school teaching gave them 
the opportunity. During the last twenty-five years 
many have done the same. The scholarship system 
has made tuition merely nominal, and the college has 
arranged to keep other expenses at the lowest point. 
The boarding halls under the direction of the cok 
lege have served in a measure to regulate prices in 
the town. A seat at the table in the most desirable 
families has rarely been more than three dollars a 
week. While the winter vacation continued, and win- 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LLFE. 269 

ter schools called for teachers, an enterprising young 
man could often make ends meet without any, or 
very little, loss of time from the college term. The 
general disappearance of winter schools, and the 
consequent, or subsequent, change of vacation to 
the summer, has made entire self-support more diffi- 
cult. The student who undertakes it now may be 
obliged to lose a year, or to come through with a 
debt. But the necessity of self-support is not as 
great as it was fifty, or even thirty, years ago. The 
families of what was then the "New West," that 
made the constituency of the college, are able now 
to aid their sons and their daughters towards an ed- 
ucation, while then they could only spare them. The 
daughters were the first to receive aid, and the sons 
afterward. The present estimate of a student's neces- 
sary expenses, including term bills, board, room rent, 
fuel, lights, washing, books and stationery, for the 
school year of thirty-eight weeks, as published in the 
annual announcement, is one hundred and twenty to 
two hundred and twenty-five dollars, according to 
the arrangements he chooses to make. This, of 
course, includes no extras, in the way of music or 
art, nor does it provide for clothing or travelling ex- 
penses, nor various incidentals which attach to stu- 
dent life. The statistics of the Class of 1881, the 
latest at hand, give nine hundred and ninety dol- 
lars as the average expenses of the class for the en- 
tire four years, or a little less than two hundred and 
fifty dollars a year ; and about one fourth of the 
young men of the class made their own way. 

The uncertain part of the student's expense for 



27O BE RUN. 

education, here and elsewhere, is that which he 
makes for himself, or rather that which the students 
make for themselves. This, too, is the part most 
difficult to regulate. Class expenses, society or club 
expenses often outgrow all the college charges, and 
they seem to be beyond the reach of college ar- 
rangement or authority. The most that can be done 
is to guard the door, with great vigilance, against 
their intrusion. Thus far, little progress has been 
made in the way of such extravagances at Oberlin. 
Some weaknesses have occasionally appeared, in 
the direction of costly programmes, or unnecessary 
music, or flowers, and in a few instances a class 
or society has indulged in an unnecessary entertain- 
ment, but a wholesome reaction soon appears, and 
the tendency is counteracted. The aim at Oberlin 
has been, and it is to be hoped will continue to be, 
to make it possible for one with limited means, or 
with determination and industry and tact, without 
means, to receive all the essential benefits of the 
course. To the inefficient this must be impossible. 
For one who has never earned his way at home, to 
come with the expectation of doing full work as a 
student and earning two hundred dollars a year be- 
sides, is absurd. There are successful students, 
without any practical gift whatever, who can never 
do anything towards their own support, in a course 
of study. But a young man of practical gifts, and 
some experience in self-support, should never be de- 
terred by want of means from making his way 
through a course of liberal education. 

The education which students receive in their col- 



COLLEGE AND STUDENT LIFE. 2/1 

lege course they obtain in large part from each 
other. An instructor and books are not sufficient. 
The student needs contact with those of his own 
age, who have impulses and ideals somewhat like his 
own ; and to save him from narrowness he needs to 
have contact with a reasonable variety of life and 
character. In this respect the student at Oberlin 
has had more than ordinary advantages. The col-* 
lege has always been national rather than local in 
its character. During the earliest years more than 
half of the students were from outside the State, 
mostly from New England and New York, and 
through all its history students have been gathered 
here from many different States and from foreign 
lands. At present sixty per cent of the students are 
from Ohio, and the remainder from forty-nine differ- 
ent States and territories and foreign countries. All 
the States of the Union are represented except Del- 
aware, Maryland, Florida, Nevada and Oregon. At 
the same time the Faculty of the college represent, in 
their places of education, more than a dozen colleges, 
universities, and professional schools. The arrange- 
ments are adapted to give the student a Christian 
education which shall not be narrow or provincial. 



CHAPTER XL 

PERSONS WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 

The Oberlin enterprise, from its beginning, has 
filled many hearts and many hands. Many lives 
have been concentrated in it, and none of these 
could have been spared. Some have had more to 
do than others, but human judgment cannot deter- 
mine who have been most useful. Those who 
have held conspicuous positions attract our notice, 
but it is possible that persons out of sight, in the 
quiet of the household, providing, through many 
years, a Christian home for the youth who needed 
it, have contributed as much as any others to the 
general cause. It seems necessary that some men- 
tion should be made in these pages of those who 
have occupied public positions, and have helped to 
give direction to the movement. But such mention 
Avill, in general, be limited to those who have passed 
away, or who have retired from the field. Of the 
founders themselves little more needs to be said than 
has already appeared, or will appear in their letters 
found in the Appendix. 

Mr. Siiipherd, in 1844, removed his family to 
Olivet, with the purpose burning in his soul to build 
another Oberlin, and even a better, but in a few 
months he lay down in his last rest. His grave was 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 2J$ 

made in the new colony, and his memory is still 
cherished there. He was only forty-two years of 
age at his death, and only thirty when he com- 
menced the work at Oberlin ; yet such was his ap- 
pearance and bearing and the weight of thought and 
care that seemed to rest upon him that he was called 
" Father Shipherd " by all the young people of the 
colony and the school. No published writings of his 
remain. Such letters as are found in the Appendix 
are all that can now be gathered up. The photo- 
graphic art had not become diffused through the 
country at the time of his death, and not even any 
outline of his features was left. 

Mrs. Esther Raymond Shipherd returned to 
Oberlin with her fatherless boys, and by the help of 
the people here her former home was secured to her. 
After some years these sons came forward to their 
mother's aid and provided her a home in Cleveland, 
where several of them were settled in business, finally 
relieving her of all care and making her declining 
years full of quiet usefulness and peace and rest. 
She died Dec. 7th, 1879, at tne a S e °f eighty-two. 
A memorial window in the Plymouth Church at 
Cleveland symbolizes the self-forgetful usefulness and 
beauty of her life. A simple tablet in the Ladies' 
Hall is all that bears the Shipherd name at Oberlin. 
Oberlin itself is their monument. 

Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, having no children, had 
pledged themselves to the service of the Oberlin 
Institute for five years, with no other compensation 
than the mere cost of living. When the school was 
opened, in 1833, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart took charge 



274 O BERLIN. 

of the boarding hall, and continued in this capacity 
of father and mother to the young people until 1836. 
The first year he was also general manager in the ab- 
sence of Mr. Shipherd, and treasurer of the college. 
His views and practice of frugality, and plainness of 
diet were somewhat too rigid for general acceptance 
with the students, and in 1836 he resigned the stew- 
ardship of the " Hall," and with some sense of dis- 
appointment Mr. and Mrs. Stewart made their way 
eastward to Vermont, and finally to New York, to 
work out the stove problem which for two or three 
years had been held in suspense. In this enterprise 
Mr. Stewart attained the fullest success; not so 
much in the acquisition of wealth for himself, which 
was not his aim, as in bringing economy and con- 
venience and comfort into thousands of the homes 
of the land. He was a philanthropist in his stove 
work, as in his work among the Indians and at 
Oberlin. He established his home at Troy, N. Y., 
in the neighborhood of the manufacturers who 
worked out his inventions. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart 
maintained through the years of their prosperity the 
same habits of simplicity and frugality which had 
characterized them in earlier life, and all their sur- 
plus means went to some good cause. Oberlin 
shared in their prosperity, although their ideal of a 
college and Christian community had not been fully 
realized. 

Mr. Stewart died December 13th, 1868, worn out 
with the cares and perplexities of his business, at 
the age of seventy years. Mrs. Stewart still remains 
at her home in Troy, and hopes to visit Oberlin on 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 2?$ 

its jubilee anniversary, the only survivor of the 
group that in the parsonage at Elyria, in prayer and 
consecration, devoted themselves to the work of 
building up in the wilderness a Christian college and 
Christian community. 

Rev. Seth H. Waldo was the first permanent 
teacher that reached the place. He had arranged 
to be present at the opening of the school, Decem- 
ber 3d, 1833, but was prevented by serious illness. 
He came about the first of May, 1834, a week before 
the opening of the summer term. He was a gradu- 
ate of Amherst and Andover, and was about thirty 
years of age at his coming. The arrangement with 
him was that he should have the charge of the 
school until the appointment of a president, and 
should then take the professorship of languages. 
He entered upon the work with enthusiasm and 
success, but the discussion upon the study of. the 
classics, which followed the coming of President 
Mahan, led to the apprehension that his ideal of ed- 
ucation could never be realized at Oberlin, and he 
resigned. He was afterward connected for several 
years with the Grand River Institute at Austinburg, 
and for many years past has maintained a classical 
school at Geneseo, 111., still full of energy, though 
full of years. 

Three days after the opening of the term in 1834, 
Dr. James DASCOMB, with his wife, reached Oberlin. 
He had been elected professor of chemistry, botany 
and physiology, and was also expected to have the 
responsibilities of physician to the new settlement. 
He was a native of New Hampshire, and was 



276 BERLIN. 

twenty-six years of age at the time of his coming 
to Oberlin. He had received his professional edu- 
cation at Dartmouth, under the instruction of Dr. 
Mussey. In temperament he was naturally cautious 
and conservative. Novelties had no attraction for 
him, and no enthusiasm ever took him off his feet. 
The truth was what he wanted, and nothing else had 
any value in his eyes. The radicalisms which were 
soon developed at Oberlin he at first regarded with 
some apprehension, and there were times in the 
early years when he felt a little inclined to retire 
from the position. He did not lift his voice against 
the new movement, but quietly held on his way, 
taking time to test the new idea or the new doc- 
trine. The value of such a conservative force in 
the midst of the fervid and plastic mass at Oberlin 
was unquestionable. His influence extended be- 
yond his own department in this respect, and tended 
everywhere to thoroughness. 

Through all the changes Dr. Dascomb held the 
same position, without any change in his prescribed 
duties, from 1834 till 1878, forty-four years, a con- 
scientious, thorough, successful instructor. In 1878, 
at the age of seventy, his strength failed him, and 
he retired from his work. Two years later, in April, 
1880, he died, forty-six years after his coming to 
Oberlin. 

Mrs. Marianne Parker Dascomb was also a 
native of New Hampshire, trained in the schools and 
the academy near her home in Dunbarton, and 
finally in the Young Ladies' Seminary at Ipswich, 
Mass., under Miss Grant. After a year of teaching 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 277 

she was married to Dr. Dascomb, April 14th, 1834, 
and left at once for her new home in the wilderness. 
The first year she was a teacher in the school, 
and the second year she was elected principal of 
the Ladies' Department. The following year, at 
her own request, she was released from these duties, 
but was at the same time made a member of the 
" Ladies' Board," then first organized. In 1852, 
under earnest pressure, she again consented to take 
the principalship, which she held until 1870, eighteen 
years, being then sixty years of age. The remaining 
years of her life she continued a member of the La- 
dies' Board, and a most helpful counsellor of her 
successor. She died on the 4th of April, 1879, J ust 
a year before her husband. 

Mrs. Dascomb was wonderfully fitted for the 
work she had to do, strong in the simplicity and 
transparency and integrity of her character, and in 
the unconscious influence which constantly attended 
her. Her power as an instructor and guide did not 
lie in any special theories of education which she 
consciously held and applied, but in her rare good 
sense, in her ready adjustment to every emergency, 
and in her cheerful and hopeful temper, which no 
cloud could darken. Such a character was an es- 
sential factor in the forces which gave form and 
vitality to early Oberlin. 

Rev. Asa Mahan reached Oberlin in May, 1835, 
having been elected to the presidency of the college, 
and entered directly upon his duties. He was then 
thirty-six years of age, a native of Western New 
York, educated at Hamilton College and Andover 



2f$ QBE RUN 

Seminary. He came from the charge of the Sixth 
Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, and his earnest 
and vigorous preaching made at once a strong im- 
pression upon the people of Oberlin. He was a bold 
and aggressive advocate of all the Oberlin ideas and 
doctrines, and was always ready, at home or abroad, 
to give a reason for the faith that was in him with 
earnestness and full conviction. He was an enthu- 
siastic teacher in his own department, that of philos- 
ophy, and gave an impulse to the study at Oberlin 
which it has never lost. His administration of the 
college was, in general, successful, and he gave his 
heart and strength to its prosperity without any res- 
ervation. An infelicity which often attends great 
strength of purpose and of character was sometimes 
suspected in him, namely, a greater facility in convic- 
tion than in conciliation. While he had many ar- 
dent friends, there would be another class who were 
as distinctly not his friends. Some of his colleagues 
felt at times that his strong aggressiveness awakened 
unnecessary hostility against the college ; and in 
1850, some of his friends having planned a new 
University at Cleveland, and invited him to take 
the direction of it, he resigned at Oberlin, having 
held the presidency of the college fifteen years. 
With President Mahan, Oberlin lost somewhat of its 
positiveness and aggressiveness. 

The enterprise at Cleveland was not a success, 
and Mr. Mahan was called to a professorship in 
Adrian College, Mich., and at length to the pres- 
idency of the college. The last ten years he has 
spent in England, in abundant labors in the special 




PRES. ASA MAHAN. 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 2J() 

work of promoting the "higher" Christian experi- 
ence, and now, at the age of eighty-three, he is 
preaching to large congregations, editing a maga- 
zine called Divine Life, and issuing one volume after 
another, such as "The Baptism of the Holy Ghost," 
" Out of Darkness into Light," and "Autobiography, 
Intellectual, Moral and Spiritual." While at Oberlin 
he published works on " The Will," "Intellectual 
Philosophy," and " Moral Philosophy." Other 
works, since published, are on Logic, Spiritualism, 
Natural Theology, and a Criticism of the Conduct 
of the War. 

Rev. CHAra.ES G. Finney came in June, 1835, 
about a month after Mr. Mahan. He was then 
nearly forty-two years of age, with health somewhat 
broken by the exhausting evangelistic labors of the 
preceding ten years. He found a theological de- 
partment of thirty-five students, and entered at 
once upon his work, as professor of systematic theol- 
ogy. His habit was to preach once on the Sabbath, 
not often twice; and the year following he was 
called to the pastorship of the church. For many 
years he gave the long winter vacation to preaching 
as an evangelist, for the most part with some church 
at the East. In 1849 ne went to England, and spent 
a year and a half in similar labors in London and 
other cities of England and Scotland. Ten years 
later he went again in the same work for about the 
same length of time. In 1 85 1 he was elected Pres- 
ident of the college, and held the position until 
1865, with the arrangement that he was not to give 
attention to the details of the position, but only to 



280 BERLIN. 

the more public duties. His work as an instructor 
was not changed except that he took the Senior col- 
lege class for some years in moral philosophy. In 
1865 he resigned the presidency, being then seventy- 
three years of age. He had already, in 1858, sur- 
rendered the work in systematic theology, retaining 
the pastoral theology and his work as a pastor. In 
1872 he laid down the pastoral work, but continued 
his pastoral lectures until the year of his death, 1875, 
having completed, lacking a few days, his eighty- 
third year. No brief mention can characterize him 
or set forth his work ; nor is it necessary. He be- 
longs to the world, and not to Oberlin alone. His 
" Sermons on Important Subjects" and " Revival 
Lectures" were published before his coming to Ober- 
lin. His " Lectures to Christians" appeared a year 
or more afterward, and his two volumes on " Sys- 
tematic Theology" in 1846 and 1847. These were 
numbered as volumes second and third, his purpose 
being to prepare a volume on " Natural Theology" 
to precede them. This volume was never written. 
While he was in England in 1850, he prepared and 
published an edition of his Theology in one volume, 
involving the substance of the two preceding vol- 
umes. His latest works were a volume on " Ma- 
sonry," published in 1869, and his " Memoirs," writ- 
ten by himself, and published after his death. Upon 
the publication of his Theology very diverse opin- 
ions were expressed in regard to it, according to the 
standpoint. 

Rev. Wm. H. Burleigh closed a notice of the 




£& "%, 




C^r^ 



*>Z^Z^t^f 



ALT. 80. 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 28 1 

work in the Charter Oak, Hartford, Conn., 1846, 
with the following paragraph : 

" We will venture the prediction that fifty years 
hence this volume will rank among the standard 
works on theology, and the name of Finney be 
mentioned with those of Edwards, Dwight and Em- 
mons. Sooner than that we fear he will not be gen- 
erally appreciated. The time will come when Fin- 
ney will have justice done to his exalted talents, 
and when the host of his revilers — men not possess- 
ing, in the aggregate, half his mental grasp, will be 
lost in oblivion unless he should preserve their 
names from utter extinction by an incidental allu- 
sion in his works." 

Dr. Charles Hodge, in the Biblical Repository, 
1847, wrote as follows: 

" The work is therefore in a high degree logical. 
It is as hard to read as Euclid. Nothing can be 
omitted ; nothing passed over slightly. The un- 
happy reader once committed to a perusal, is obliged 
to go on, sentence by sentence, through the long 
concatenation. There is not one resting-place, not 
one lapse into amplification or declamation, from the 
beginning to the close. It is like one of those spi- 
ral staircases, which lead to the top of some high 
tower, without a landing from the base to the sum- 
mit ; which, if a man has once ascended, he resolves 
never to do the like again. The author begins with 
certain postulates, or what he calls first truths of 
reason, and these he traces out with singular clear- 
ness and strength to their legitimate conclusions. 
We do not see that there is a break or a defective link 



282 BERLIN. 

in the whole chain. If you grant his principles, you 
have already granted his conclusions. . . . We pro- 
pose to rely on the reductio ad absurdum, and make 
his doctrines the refutation of his principles. . . . 
We consider this a fair refutation. If the principle 
that obligation is limited by ability, leads to the con- 
clusion that moral character is confined to intention, 
and that again to the conclusion that when the in- 
tention is right nothing can be morally wrong, then 
the principle is false. Even if we could not detect 
its fallacy, we should know it could not be true." 

Dr. George Redford, of Worcester, England, in the 
preface to the London edition, which he edited, 185 1, 
writes: "As a contribution to theological science, in 
an age when vague speculation and philosophical 
theories are bewildering all denominations of Chris- 
tians, this work will be considered by all competent 
judges to be both valuable and seasonable. Upon 
several important and difficult subjects the author 
has thrown a clear and valuable light which will 
guide many a student through perplexities and diffi- 
culties which he had long sought unsuccessfully to 
explain. The editor frankly confesses that when 
a student he would gladly have bartered half the 
books in his library to have gained a single perusal 
of these lectures; and he cannot refrain from ex- 
pressing the belief that no young student of theology 
will ever regret the purchase or perusal of Mr. Fin. 
ney's lectures." 

REV. JOHN MORGAN arrived at Oberlin in com- 
pany with Mr, Finney, in 1835. He was then thirty- 
two years of age, a native of Ireland, having been 




DR. JOHN MORGAN. 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 283 

brought to this country at the age of ten, trained as 
a printer in eastern cities, prepared for college at 
Stockbridge, Mass., and graduated at Williams, as 
valedictorian, in 1826. He had taken no seminary 
course, but studied theology some years in New 
York. He was an instructor in the literary or 
preparatory department of Lane Seminary, at the 
time of the antislavery excitement there, and was 
in entire sympathy with the students in their with- 
drawal. His first appointment to Oberlin was as 
professor of mathematics, but the call which he ac- 
cepted was to the chair of the literature and exegesis 
of the New Testament. This work he entered upon 
at once, but his broad and thorough scholarship 
enabled him to fill many a gap, upon emergency, in 
the new college. There was not a study in the 
entire curriculum in which he could not give instruc- 
tion at an hour's warning, as successfully as if it were 
his own specialty. But the New Testament was his 
chosen field, and for this field his linguistic, histori- 
cal and philosophical gifts and attainments abun- 
dantly qualified him. He was no mere mechanical 
or technical interpreter, but reached at once the soul 
of the matter, where language and philosophy both 
harmonize. 

The influence of Professor Morgan in the enter- 
prise was conservative in the best sense, not by 
reason of any inertia or immobility of nature. His 
enthusiasm, in any well-considered movement, was 
always prompt, but his breadth of nature and 
thought and knowledge gave him a view of all sides 
of every question, and he could not hold an extreme 



284 BERLIN. 

position, or enjoy any extreme action. He could 
patiently tolerate the extravagances of others, be- 
cause of his kindliness and his hopefulness. Proba- 
bly no one among the many instructors who have 
been at Oberlin has held a larger place in the hearts 
of all. For many years he was associated with Mr. 
Finney in the pastorship of the church, preaching 
once on the Sabbath, and more in Mr. Finney's 
absence or ill health. Two years ago, at the age of 
seventy-eight, he retired entirely from his work, and 
since that time has been residing with a son and a 
daughter in Cleveland. By all right he belongs to 
Oberlin, and the benediction of his presence in these 
latest years ought to rest upon us. He expended 
his interest and his labor upon his classes, and rarely 
felt that he was ready to commit his thoughts to 
writing. Thus far he has given us no books. A 
few valuable essays are all that we have from him in 
this form. The " Baptism of the Holy Spirit" and 
"Acceptable Holiness" were published in the 
Oberlin Review , and an article on the " Atonement," 
in two parts, can be found in the Bibliotheca Sacra 
for 1877-8. 

Rev. Henry Cowles was called to the professor- 
ship of languages at Oberlin, upon the resignation 
of Mr. Waldo, and came in September, 1835. He 
was born in Norfolk, Conn., in 1803, and was thirty- 
two years of age when he came. He had graduated 
at Yale, and taken his theological course there. He 
completed the course in 1828, was ordained at 
Hartford the same year, and came at once to North- 
ern Ohio under appointment from the Connecticut 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 285 

Home Missionary Society. He preached in Ash- 
tabula and Sandusky, and after two years, having 
received a call from the church in Austinburg, he 
returned to his home in Connecticut, was married, 
and commenced his work in Austinburg. From a 
most successful pastorate of five years he came to 
Oberlin, and found himself in full sympathy with all 
the leading objects and aims of the work ; and from 
the first day until the day of his death — a period of 
forty-six years — he gave himself, without reserve, to 
these objects. There seemed to be no thought of 
himself or his personal interests ; no anxiety in 
reference to position. His heart was in the work, 
and all he asked was a place to lay out his strength. 
In 1838 he took the chair of Church History in the 
seminary, and of Hebrew and Old Testament Lit- 
erature in 1840. In 1848, in consequence of strait- 
ened means on the part of the college, and the 
necessity of reducing expenses, he resigned his work 
in the seminary, and took the editorship of the 
Oberlin Evangelist, a work which he had shared 
with others for some years preceding. From this 
time until the close of 1862 he gave his thought and 
heart to the Evangelist, and made it greatly what 
it was, a treasury of religious thought and experi- 
ence, and of practical life. The twenty-four volumes 
of the Oberlin Evangelist, with which Professor 
Cowles had more to do than any other man, give a 
better exhibition of Oberlin thought and character 
and work during those years than any definite 
attempt to set them forth can possibly do. 

When the Evangelist was closed up Professor 



286 BERLIN. 

Cowles was about sixty years of age, and might 
naturally feel that the chief work of his life was 
done; and it would have been a satisfactory work. 
But the habit of communicating his thoughts to 
others by writing was strong upon him, and by what 
seemed a divine leading he entered upon the work 
of writing commentaries upon the Scriptures. He 
commenced with the parts of the Old Testament to 
which he had given more particular attention as an 
instructor, and went on, year after year, adding vol- 
ume to volume, devoting to it all his energies and all 
his resources, through a period of seventeen years. 
In 1881 he issued the last volume, and then felt that 
the Lord permitted him to depart in peace. His 
work was done ; the result remains with us — a com- 
mentary on the entire Scriptures, full of practical 
wisdom and the ripe fruits of scholarship. He died 
in September of the same year. The interests of 
the college through all these years filled his heart 
and hands. He was a member of the ' ; Prudential 
Committee" and a trustee, in constant attendance 
upon these duties, and often went out upon financial 
missions in behalf of the college. His last public 
duty was to attend the meeting of the trustees in 
1881. 

It would be much more satisfactory to give the 
family life of these men, to look into their homes and 
observe there the results of Christian character and 
fidelity. By the side of each one of these men there 
stood a woman of like spirit and faith, whose life in 
the community was no less valuable ; and children 
were gathered about them whose work and life it 




DR. HENRY COWLES. 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 2%J 

would be pleasant to follow, but this opens too 
wide a field. 

Rev. John P. COWLES, brother of Henry, was 
called to Oberlin, in 1836, as Professor of Hebrew 
and Old Testament Literature. He was a member 
of the same class with his brother at Yale, and erad- 
uated as valedictorian. He took up the work with 
great heartiness and energy, and was in essential sym- 
pathy with the Oberlin life and aims. Some of the 
peculiarities which appeared did not command his 
respect. The diet, and now and then a doctrine, 
suffered from his sharp and sometimes sarcastic 
criticism, and after two or three years he was asked 
to retire. A little more gentleness on one side, and 
more patience and tolerance on the other, would 
have saved to the school an instructor of the ripest 
scholarship and the highest ability, who was in har- 
mony with all that was essential at Oberlin. For 
many years he and his wife have been at the head of 
the school for young women at Ipswich, Mass. 

Another member of the same class, of 1826, at 
Yale was ELIJAH P. BARROWS. He was elected 
professor of Hebrew at Oberlin in 1835, Du t: did 
not accept the appointment. After filling the same 
chair at Western Reserve College, and again at An- 
dover Seminary, in 1871 he took up the work at 
Oberlin tendered him so long before, and carried it 
forward with great acceptance nearly ten years, until 
failing strength demanded rest. Dr. Barrows is still 
among us, bearing the honors of a useful life and of 
a cheerful old age. 

Timothy B. Hudson came to Oberlin as a stu- 



288 OBERLIN. 

dent, in 1835, and entered the Sophomore class, hav- 
ing been before in attendance at Western Reserve 
College. He was at the time about twenty years of 
age, an earnest and ambitious scholar, and of pro- 
nounced personal influence and character. The grow- 
ing school soon enlisted his services as a teacher, and 
his relations as a pupil were interrupted. In 1838 
he was elected Professor of the Latin and Greek 
Languages, and performed the work until 1841 ; then 
a more active life seemed necessary for his health, 
and he resigned, and entered the service of the Ohio 
Antislavery Society as a lecturer. After several 
years of this service, holding conventions and lec- 
turing throughout the State, he accepted in 1847 an 
invitation to his former position at Oberlin, and 
continued as Professor of Languages until his death 
in 1858. He was a vigorous and impressive teacher 
and disciplinarian, and a speaker of unusual power. 
In the antislavery work he was very effective, and 
especially he was helpful in the establishment of 
the National Era at Washington, which was so ably 
conducted for many years by Dr. Bailey. In the 
college work every department and every interest 
felt his influence. His vacations were often devoted 
to financial work in behalf of the college, contribu- 
ting materially to its support. Although his regular 
course as a student was interrupted, he never ceased 
to be a student, and in 1847 ne took his degree and 
was formally numbered among the alumni of the 
college. So far as his attainments were concerned 
he might have had the degree ten years before, but 
had not cared to ask it. 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 289 

His death was tragic, and never fully explained. 
He left Oberlin by the train, to go to Strongsville, 
expecting to find conveyance from one of the sta- 
tions nearest to Strongsville. At Olmstead station, 
in attempting either to leave the train or to return 
to it while it was moving, he was drawn along by the 
side of the track and at length thrown under the 
wheels. It was late in the evening and no one ob- 
served him, until the engineer of a train ten minutes 
later saw him lying on the track, but not in time 
to arrest his train. It was a sad day at Oberlin 
when the mangled remains were brought back to be 
buried here. He was forty-three years of age at his 
death. 

George Whipple came with others from Lane 
Seminary, in 1835, already a man of mature character 
and judgment, and sound scholarship. At the com- 
pletion of his theological course, in 1836, he was 
elected principal of the preparatory department, and 
in 1838 Professor of Mathematics, resigning in 1847, 
to become Corresponding Secretary of the American 
Missionary Association, organized the year before. 
At Oberlin he rendered very valuable service, not 
only as an instructor, but as a standing member of 
the " Prudential Committee" having in charge the 
business affairs of the college. For such responsi- 
bilities his even, well-balanced judgment admirably 
fitted him. The same clear judgment became after- 
ward the strength of the Association to which he 
devoted his life. The incessant work and care at 
length broke down his strong constitution, and he 
died in 1876, at the age of seventy-one, having seen 



29O OBERLIN. 

the Association advance from small beginnings to a 
condition of great usefulness and prosperity. 

James A. Thome was a member of the same 
class in Lane, and came to Oberlin in 1835. He 
was born in Augusta, Ky., the son of a slaveholder, 
of Scotch Presbyterian ancestry. At the completion 
of his course, in 1836, at the age of twenty-three, he 
was commissioned with another gentleman, by the 
American Antislavery Society, to visit the West 
India Islands, and observe and report the results of 
emancipation there. This mission he discharged with 
great acceptance, and wrote a very interesting vol- 
ume, which was published in 1838, and greatly aided 
in the antislavery work in this country. The same 
year, 1838, he was elected Professor of Rhetoric and 
Belles Lettres at Oberlin, and held the chair with 
acceptance and success until 1848, when he was 
called to the pastorate of the First Congregational 
Church of Cleveland. This position he held, in 
abundant and successful labors, for twenty-three 
years, retiring in 1 871, to engage in a new church 
enterprise at Chattanooga, Tenn. After two years, 
in the midst of these labors, he was struck down 
with sudden disease, and died in March, 1873, at the 
age of sixty years. In 185 1, soon after leaving Ober- 
lin, he was elected a trustee of the college, and often 
visited us to give a course of rhetorical instruction 
to the college classes, or of pastoral lectures to the 
students of the seminary, or to favor us with some 
public address or discourse — services always most 
welcome and profitable. He was a man eloquent in 
Speech, pleasing and impressive in personal presence, 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK, 29 1 

fearless as a soldier in duty, gentle and sensitive as 
a woman in his respect for the feelings of others — a 
true Christian man. 

Mr. Amasa Walker, of North Brookfield, Mass., 
accepted, in 1842, an appointment to the professor- 
ship of Political Economy ; not as a resident pro- 
fessor, but to come every year and give a course of 
lectures continuing through several weeks. The 
same salary was credited to him as to other pro- 
fessors, but there was never any less in the treasury 
for his coming. Mr. Walker was trained as a busi- 
ness man, in New England, and did not get his 
theories from the schools; but he was as radical in 
his advocacy of free trade and solid currency as 
the most theoretical modern professor; and he 
drew his illustrations of his principles from his own 
wide experience and observation as a business 
man. 

In one respect he went beyond even Oberlin radi- 
calism in his principles of reform. He was a " peace 
man;" not an ultra " non-resistant," but he regarded 
war, under all conditions, as sinful. His coming 
was the occasion of earnest but friendly discussion 
of the rightfulness of defensive war. It is interest- 
ing to know that when the test came, in 1861, his 
three sons entered the army and did valiant service, 
with his full approval — not, as he afterward ex- 
plained in a pamphlet, to engage in war, but to sus- 
tain the government in the use of its police force to 
execute the laws of the land. How often words 
instead of principles separate those who seem to 
differ. Mr. Walker published various pamphlets 



292 OBERLIN. 

and a text-book on Political Economy. He died 
recently at his home in North Brookfield. 

Two other names that have appeared in these 
pages belong to this early period of Oberlin history, 
those of Father Keep and Mr. Dawes. 

Rev. John Keep was born in Long Meadow, 
Mass., in 1781, graduated at Yale in 1802, was pas- 
tor in Blandford, Mass., and in Homer, N. Y., from 
1805 till 1833, when he came to Cleveland and be- 
came pastor of a new church on the West Side. 
While he was at Homer he had been a trustee of 
Hamilton College and of Auburn Theological Semi- 
nary, and was naturally interested in any educational 
enterprise in the neighborhood. In 1834 he was 
elected a trustee at Oberlin, and held the position 
until his death in 1870. By reason of his years and 
experience he was made president of the Board, and 
had the responsibility of the casting vote on the 
question of receiving colored students, in 1835. 
From that day he took Oberlin on his heart, and 
never laid it off unless when he laid off the earthly 
life. His last words pertained to a letter he had 
planned to write in the interest of the college. He 
traversed the land to gather means to sustain it, and 
crossed the ocean to save it in a crisis. In 1 850, 
then seventy years of age, he removed to Oberlin, 
and from that time his home was here. At every 
meeting of the trustees he was present, and encour- 
aged all by his hope and his faith. When others were 
depressed he sustained and bore them on by his 
cheerful courage, and thus he held on to the end of 
his days. When more than fourscore years old he 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 293 

would often come out at evening, with his lantern, 
to find some one burdened with responsibility and 
care, and cheer him up with a word of encourage- 
ment. His sleep was sweeter after such a service. 
He died in his eighty-ninth year, not from disease, 
but because life was completed. 

Mr. Wm. DAWES became a trustee of the college 
in 1838, and at the same time made his home in 
Oberlin. He had been a successful business man, 
and upon visiting Oberlin he was greatly pleased 
with the spirit of enterprise and work, on the part 
of students and professors, which he witnessed on 
every hand. He at once cast in his lot with them, 
and through a period of twelve years he greatly 
aided in sustaining the work by his financial ability 
and personal influence. The mission to England 
was a success, to a great extent through his strength 
of purpose and personal force, his power to impress 
others with his own convictions. His courage at 
times seemed to amount almost to presumption, but 
he rarely failed to estimate properly his oppor- 
tunity. Others were not always able to work up to 
his standard of faith. To keep the college from 
debt he proposed that the salaries of the professors 
should not constitute a legal claim, but that what- 
ever came should be divided, and if there were any- 
thing lacking it should not be a debt on the part of 
the college. This was his view of the relations which 
Christian workers should sustain to any benevolent 
enterprise which they w r ere carrying forward. It is 
the principle applied in what is known in these days 
as the " Faith Mission." The principle did not 



294 OBERLW. 

commend itself generally to the parties concerned, 
and the plan was not adopted. Mr. Dawes had set 
his heart upon this idea as the true Christian con- 
ception, and he at length retired from further re- 
sponsibility. He is passing a quiet old age, in full 
possession of his faculties, at Fox Lake, Wis. 

In this circle of devoted and consecrated men, one 
was found who proved false, the only one during 
the fifty years who has betrayed his trust or brought 
scandal upon the cause. It is not necessary to name 
him. He came in 1836, a graduate of Western Re- 
serve College, and took his theological course at Ober- 
lin, a young man of ability and promise and marked 
influence. When the Evangelist was established he 
was made office editor, and was appointed to other 
posts of responsibility. It was a dark day in the 
winter of 1843 when his hypocrisy and villainy and 
vileness were disclosed. Imprisonment and other 
penalties which followed did not change his charac- 
ter. He became an exile, and lived for many years 
and died in the remote south-western part of the 
country, with no sign of essential reformation. 

GEORGE N. ALLEN, whose work has been already 
mentioned, was elected Professor of Music in 1841, 
and of Natural History in 1847. He continued his 
work until 1870. After retiring, he removed with 
his family to Cincinnati, and died there in 1877, at the 
age of sixty-five. He was buried in the Oberlin 
Cemetery. 

William Cochran came to Oberlin as a student, 
in 1835, from Fredericktown, Ohio. He graduated 
in 1839, an< 3 took the theological course, completing 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 2Q$ 

it in 1842. The same year he was appointed Profes- 
sor of Logic and Associate Professor of Intellectual 
and Moral Philosophy. He had unusual powers 
in the direction of philosophical inquiry and 
thought, and was a very impressive preacher. A 
series of articles in the Obcrlin Quarterly Review, of 
which he was an editor, on the simplicity of moral 
action, gives an example of his analytical powers, 
and is still worthy of careful study. Professor Coch- 
ran resigned in 1846, with the thought of entering 
the profession of law. He died at Fredericktown 
in 1847, at the age of thirty-three, and was buried in 
the Oberlin Cemetery. 

The prosperity of the college through all the fifty 
years has depended upon the faithful and unpaid 
services of its trustees, resident and non-resident, 
some of whom have stood at their posts almost for a 
lifetime, devising ways and means, and often meeting 
a necessity from their own personal resources. The 
only survivor of the nine original corporators is 
Jabez L. Burrell of Oberlin. The only other surviv- 
ors of those elected during the first ten years are 
Wm. Dawes, already mentioned, and F. D. Parish 
of Sandusky, who was elected in 1839, an< ^ attended 
every meeting, except one, when he was in Western 
Virginia looking after the lands of the college, until 
his resignation in 1878. He is now, at the age of 
eighty-six, a resident of Oberlin. Among the non- 
resident trustees who stood by the college through 
evil report and good, was William Sears of Boston, 
who before the railroad came west of Buffalo often 
made the long journey to attend the meetings, and 



296 BERLIN. 

Samuel D. Porter, of Rochester, who was present in 
every emergency with his wise and considerate 
counsel. Of the resident trustees, Uriah Thompson 
and Jabez W. Merrill have rendered the college 
faithful service for many years, and still live to look 
after its interests. Brewster Pelton removed to 
Cleveland in 185 1, but retained his life-long interest 
in Oberlin, and at his death, in 1872, left a be- 
quest to the college of twenty-five thousand dollars. 
Of the earliest inhabitants — the" Colonists" — few 
remain. Several of the families, after a few years, 
moved on to the farther West, some in the way of 
general emigration, others to new colonies, as to 
Olivet, Mich., and Tabor, Iowa. Peter P. Pease, the 
first colonist, remained to the end, and died in 1861. 
Josiah B. Hall performed a home missionary work, 
for years, in the neighborhoods between Oberlin and 
Elyria, established a settlement, a mile and a half 
north-east, still called " New Oberlin," with the 
thought of having there a subsidiary preparatory 
school, and at length led the new colony to Tabor, 
in 185 1. Wm. Hosford went to Olivet, in a similar 
way, in 1845. Samuel Daniels, Isaac Cummings, 
Philip James, Daniel Marsh and several others re- 
moved early to other places in the vicinity, or to the 
far West. Of all these, Philip James of Nebraska is 
the only known survivor. Of the families that came 
early and remained until the later years, the following 
names will be recalled : Hamilton, Safford, Stevens, 
Penfield, Ellis, Pease, Wack, Jones, McWade, Evans 
and Leonard, on South Main Street; Turner, Steele, 
Jennings, Taylor, Gaston, Wheat, Ryder, Little, Holts- 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 297 

lander, Keep, Campbell, Campton, Leonard, Page, 
Piatt and Bailey, on North Main Street; Ingersoll> 
Johnson, Gerrish, Beckwith, Gaston, Cox, Burrell, 
Clark, Kenaston and Crosby, on East College Street; 
Parish, Rawson, Smith and Hawley, on West College 
Street ; Pelton, Hill, Elmore, Watson, Bardwell and 
Lamberton, on East Lorain Street ; Jewell, Cox, Hop- 
kins, Hull, Kinney, Rossiter, Shepard and Matthews, 
on West Lorain Street ; Weed, Hovey, Ells and Bar- 
tholomew, on Pleasant Street; Kinney, Wright, But- 
ler, Dutton and Fitch, on South Professor Street; Lin- 
coln, Hall, Andrews and Pease, on North Professor 
Street; Evans, Scott, Munson and Strauss, on Mill 
Street ; Dodge and Copeland, on Morgan Street ; and 
Dawes, Thompson, Cole, Bailey and Spees, in New 
Oberlin. Other families within the limits mentioned 
will doubtless be recalled ; but these suggest a vol- 
ume of unwritten history, which it would be interest- 
ing to linger upon. 

Among other memories of the past, former stu- 
dents will recall those with whom the term bills were 
settled — the Treasurers of the college — Levi Burnell 
from 1835 to 1841, Hamilton Hill from 1841 to 
1865; and the Book-keeper of that period and of 
later times, George P. Wyett; and George Kinney, 
Treasurer from 1865 to 1875. 

Nor will they forget those who spread their table 
at the Ladies' Hall, the Stewards and Matrons — after 
Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. David Campbell, 
of Boston, in the days of Grahamism; Mr. and Mrs. G. 
Fairchild of Brownhelm; Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Wright; 
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Viets ; Mr. and Mrs. L. Herrick: 



298 O BERLIN. 

all in the old hall; and in the new, Mr. and Mrs. E. Fol- 
lett ; Mr. and Mrs. George Kinney; and Mr. and Mrs. 
M. Day, down to the present occupants. Thus far no 
one has held the Stewardship longer than eight years, 
but the limit is only traditional, not constitutional. 

The principals of the Ladies' Department are nat- 
urally associated with the Ladies' Hall, having had 
their office there, and usually their personal apart- 
ments. Besides Mrs. Dascomb, already spoken of, 
Mrs. Alice W. Cowles, wife of Prof. Henry Cowles, 
held the position from 1836 to 1840, Miss Mary 
Ann Adams as assistant and as principal from 1839 
to 1849, an d Mrs. Mary C. Hopkins from 1850 to 
1852. Of these Mrs. Hopkins, now living at Roches- 
ter, N. Y., is the only survivor. 

The limits of this volume will not permit any per- 
sonal reference to the twenty thousand students who, 
for a longer or shorter period, have enjoyed the bene- 
fits of the school ; nor can any satisfactory record be 
made of the alumni proper, those who have com- 
pleted a course of study here. Of these, three hun- 
dred and nunety-three have completed the theological 
course, ten hundred and eleven the classical course, 
and seven hundred and twenty-three the literary 
course. Some of these have become distinguished, 
and many of them have been useful. 

It remains to mention a few that have been in- 
structors in the college in later times, and have fin- 
ished their work. 

Henry E. Peck, of Rochester, N. Y., a graduate 
of Bowdoin College, completed his theological course 
at Oberlin,in 1845. After pastoral work in Roches* 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 299 

ter until 1852, he was called to Oberlin as Professor 
of Sacred Rhetoric and Associate in Mental and 
Moral Philosophy. He held the position until 1865, 
when, receiving an appointment from the Govern- 
ment as Minister to Hayti, he accepted and went to 
Port au Prince. In the second year of his residence 
there, he died of the yellow fever. His remains 
were afterwards brought to Oberlin for burial. Pro- 
fessor Peck was not only interested in his college 
work, which he performed with much acceptance, 
but all the interests of the community, personal, 
social, municipal, and political, commanded his atten- 
tion. Many town improvements received their first 
impulse from him. Many a struggling student or 
citizen received from him a timely suggestion or 
needed help ; and when the young men went to the 
war, he saw them on their way, and visited them on 
many a field. He had the rare faculty of doing 
many things, and doing them well. Restless activity 
was essential to his life. 

Charles H. Penfield graduated at Oberlin in 
1847. He was an Oberlin boy, brought up here from 
his early childhood. In 1848 he was appointed tutor 
in Latin and Greek in college; in 1855, Professor of 
Latin, and in 1866, Professor of Greek, resigning in 
1870. For several years past he has been Professor 
of Greek in the Central High School of Cleveland. 

REV. HlRAM MEAD, a native of Vermont, edu- 
cated at Middlebury and at Andover, pastor nine 
years at South Hadley, Mass., and two years at 
Manchester, N. H., was called to Oberlin, in 1869, 
as Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral The- 



300 OBERLIN'. 

ology. He entered upon the work with all his 
heart, and was very helpful in bringing up the 
seminary from the depression which it had suffered 
after the war. Council Hall grew up under his ener- 
getic and persistent and successful work. His pres- 
ence here attracted the endowment of the Holbrook 
professorship. The beautiful hymn and tune book 
in which we rejoice, derived much of its excellence 
from his taste and experience and labor. The 
disease from which he died appeared to result from 
a fall upon the sidewalk one winter morning. An 
internal tumor was developed, and he died in May, 
1 88 1, at the age of fifty-four. 

Rev. John B. Perry was called to the professor- 
ship of Natural Science in 1871. He was a gradu- 
ate of the Vermont University, and had taken a 
theological course at Andover. After several years 
in the pastoral work, he was appointed assistant 
of Professor Agassiz, in the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, at Cambridge. He accepted the appoint, 
ment at Oberlin, contemplating a five months' course 
of lectures each year, while still retaining his con- 
nection with the Museum, and having his home at 
Cambridge. He gave his course at Oberlin in the 
spring and summer of 1872, and died at his home in 
Cambridge, in October of the same year, at the age 
of forty-six. 

William H. Ryder succeeded Professor Penfield 
in the Chair of Greek, in 1870. He was brought up 
at Oberlin from a child, and graduated at the college^ 
completing his theological course at Andover. He 
had been preaching some years in Wisconsin, when he 



THOSE WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE WORK. 301 

was called to Oberlin. He filled the position with 
great success for seven years, when he resigned to 
accept a call from the Congregational Church at 
Ann Arbor, Mich., where he still remains. 

WILLIAM K. Kedzie was elected, in 1878, as the 
successor of Dr. Dascomb in the department of Chem- 
istry. He was the son of Robert C. Kedzie, of the 
class of 1847, Professor of Chemistry in the Agri- 
cultural College of Michigan. Having been his 
father's pupil and assistant in the laboratory from a 
child, he graduated at the Agricultural College, and 
afterward pursued chemistry in the Sheffield Scientific 
School. He had been several years Professor of 
Chemistry in the Kansas Agricultural College when 
he accepted the call to Oberlin. Under his super- 
intendence the new laboratory was fitted up, and 
the new methods of instruction introduced. He 
died after two years of enthusiastic and successful 
work, at the age of twenty-eight. 

Rev. Samuel H. Lee, in 1878, accepted a finan- 
cial secretaryship in behalf of the college, with the 
professorship of Political Economy, coming from 
the pastorate of the First Congregational Church of 
Cleveland. After three years of faithful and success- 
ful service he resigned to resume the pastoral work. 

Those who have been principals of the prepara- 
tory department since 1845 are a ^ still living. 
Henry E. Whipple, appointed in 1846, was called 
in 1853 to a professorship at Hillsdale College, Mich., 
and is now living at Mendocino, Cal. 

Edward H. FAIRCHILD graduated at Oberlin in 
1838; took the theological course here, and con- 



302 0BERL1N. 

tinued in the pastoral work until his call to Qberlin 
in 1853. He held the position of principal until 
1869, when he resigned to accept the presidency of 
Berea College, Ky. Two or three years of this time 
he was engaged in the financial work of the college. 

ROSELLE T. CROSS graduated at Oberlin in 1867, 
held the principalship from 1869 to 1874, and re- 
signed to take up pastoral work. He is now preach- 
ing in Denver, Col. Rev. James H. LAIRD, of the 
college class of i860 and Theological class of 1864, 
succeeded Mr. Cross in 1874, and resigned in 1877 to 
resume the pastoral work. He has been pastor in 
Andover, Mass., the last five years. Of the many 
tutors in this department, no student of the years 
1842-53 will forgot Nelson W. Hodge, who was 
the presiding genius of the Latin and Greek recita- 
tion rooms during that period. He was a graduate 
of 1838, and resigned in 1853 to ta ^ e U P farming at 
the West. He is living at Ripon, Wis. 

Those who are now living and actively engaged 
in the work do not naturally appear in these records. 
Of the whole number of instructors during the fifty 
years, only four have died while in active connection 
with the college. 

That such a body of able men, of varied gifts and 
attainments, preachers, teachers, writers and business 
men, should have been gathered and held in connec- 
tion with the enterprise, under such disadvantages, 
according to the ordinary apprehension of the case, 
is to be explained in part by a divine overruling 
which brought them, and by the strong attraction 
of the work itself, which retained them. It has been 



THOSE IVIIO HAl T E SHARED IN THE WORK. 303 

no unusual thing that men have left larger salaries in 
coming to Oberlin, and have remained against the 
offer of larger salaries. 

The importance and magnitude of the work have 
also had much to do in making it possible for men 
of such diverse education and habits of thought — 

o 

gathered from so many different schools, with widely 
diverging views, engaged in an enterprise involving 
so many new and untried features, with little experi- 
ence and few traditions to guide them — to work 
together in essential harmony during the fifty years. 
There have been earnest discussions and pronounced 
differences, but no quarrels, no factions, no aliena- 
tions. The momentum of the work itself has seemed 
to overrule minor perturbations. But above all a 
divine ordering has been conspicuous, from the 
small beginning in 1833, to this our Jubilee Year. 
" Except the Lord build the house, they labor in 
vain that build it." 



APPENDIX. 



EARLY LETTERS. 

P. P. Stewart to J. J. Shipherd. 

Elyria, Feb. 4, 1833. 
Very dear Brother: 

Your letter of the twenty-sixth ult. to Mrs. Ship- 
herd, which came to hand on the second inst., greatly 
comforted us concerning your continued health and 
other favorable circumstances. We have been wait- 
ing with much solicitude to know how you would 
succeed in your agency in that part of the country 
where you now are. We have supposed that some- 
thing could be determined as to the final result of 
your efforts in behalf of the seminary, from a few 
weeks' labor in that vicinity. From your letter we 
are led to conclude that since you left Rochester you 
have increased your subscription but one hundred 
dollars. From your success previously we had ex- 
pected more from these places you have since vis- 
ited. But in looking at the indications of Providence 
we must regard them as a whole, and then inquire 
what our duty is concerning them. We have now 
fairly put our hand to the plough, and must not look 
back, that is if we have done it understandingly and 



3<d6 oberlix. 

in the fear of God. The objects contemplated in the 
establishment of the institution appear to me as 
much in accordance with the genius of the Gospel 
as heretofore. For these very objects Christians are 
continually praying. Then the question arises, will 
God hear and answer our prayers if they be not ac- 
companied with our labors and charities? 

Previous to receiving your letter from Rochester, 
which contained an order for one hundred and sixty- 
six dollars, I had obtained a renewal of the note 
at the bank by paying fifty dollars. My own health 
is better than when I wrote you last. Mrs. Stewart's 
is not as good. You doubtless feel anxious to know 
what is likely to result from the machine. You will 
probably be surprised to know that I have done very 
little about it since you left. I may have acted in- 
judiciously, but have done what seemed to be duty. 
The way did no': seem prepared to apply horse 
power to the machine during the winter. Under 
these circumstances it seemed necessary that I 
should do what I could to curtail the expenses of 
the family. . . . 

The circumstances of my turning my attention 
from the planing machine to the making of stoves 
may have the appearance of fickle-mindedness, and I 
will not pretend that my character stands entirely 
free from such a blemish. But there is an overlook- 
ing Providence, which often guides us very different- 
ly from our own intentions, or wishes. I regarded 
it as a very undesirable circumstance that I was 
obliged to occupy my time in procuring a stove, and 
if I had had the funds at command I should have pur- 



APPENDIX. 307 

chased one at once ; but as it has turned out I can- 
not but hope that great benefit will result to the 
community, especially to that part in moderate cir- 
cumstances. 

I am still of the opinion that the machine will be 
valuable if it can be got into operation, but it seems 
necessary that my time should be occupied about the 
stove, for a while at least. Several families in this 
village are wishing to purchase a cooking-stove, and 
are anxious that this should be perfected and tested 
before they buy. Among these are the three fam- 
ilies of the Iron Company. There is a prospect now 
of its having the preference at this furnace. The 
making of patterns is a new business to me. I 
make but slow progress, but there are no pat-tern 
makers in the place that I know of, and if there were 
I have no money to pay them. . . . 

I find that the circumstance of our inducing so 
many Christian families to locate together is made 
use of by those not very friendly to the object, as 
an objection to the plan. I would suggest for your 
consideration the question whether it would not do 
to dispose of some of the colonial lands to per- 
sons of a certain character who are not pious. 
The by-laws might be of such a character as to se- 
cure the interests of the institution. This might be 
better than to have the colony very small, and sur- 
rounded by a corrupt and irreligious population. 
Perhaps we ought not to depend to any considerable 
extent upon the colonists to sustain the institution, 
because we should want to secure for it the sympa- 
thies and fostering care of all the churches in this 



308 OBERLIN. 

region. It might be well for you to ascertain 
whether Street and Hughes would have any objec- 
tion to persons paying to the Institution a certain 
percentage on the land which they shall respectively 
take up. I have no doubt there will be much preju- 
dice excited against the enterprise by the hasty and 
injudicious remarks of professed friends of the cause, 
and this will probably be done to some extent by 
those who are the real disciples of Christ. A cir- 
cumstance apparently of a very unfavorable charac- 
ter has recently occurred in this place. Mr. C, 
the agent of the Western Reserve College, came 
here to solicit funds for that institution. In three 
prominent instances he failed of obtaining sub- 
scriptions on account of the colony. The persons 
were Capt. R., Mr. T., and Mr. J. They were 
pressed very hard, but maintained firmly their 
ground, saying that they believed the money they 
had to give, under existing circumstances, could do 
more in the Oberlin Institute than otherwise. What 
Mr. C. knew about the plan of the colony I know 
not, or from what source he obtained his informa- 
tion. He did not, however, hesitate to express his 
most decided disapprobation of the plan. The cir- 
cumstance of congregating a large number of Chris- 
tian families in one neighborhood, he urged as a 
most objectionable feature. This man travelling 
from place to place will probably occasion many pre- 
possessions unfavorable to the enterprise. You re- 
marked in one of your letters that Oberlin would rise 
by the hardest labor. This may be true ; probably is. 
But if it is the work of the Lord, it matters not how 



APPENDIX. 309 

much labor is required. If it is a privilege to labor 
for the Lord : and we are to depend on him for di- 
rection, the question how much labor we shall per- 
form about one thing is of very little importance. 
The discountenance that some may give to our man- 
ner of laboring, or the virulent opposition of others, 
should never discourage us, or turn us aside from the 
course which the word of God and the indications 
of his providence point out. In regard to the man- 
ner of raising funds I think it is greatly to be de- 
sired that they should come from the Christian com- 
munity ; that is, for the most part. After obtaining 
what we can from this source, and the Lord should 
succeed some of our other plans, we shall still find 
use for all, or if the Lord bring in something soon 
from some of our own devices, we should not, of 
course, reject it; but what I have more particularly 
in view is the importance of securing a deep interest 
in the hearts of Christians. If many give, and give 
as they ought, many prayers will be secured for the 
institution and the colony. This is impressed on 
my mind as a point of very great importance. . . . 
Yours truly and affectionately, 
P. P. Stewart. 

P. P. Stewart to Fayette Shipherd, 
Troy, N. Y. 

Elyria, O., May 21, 1833. 
Very dear Brother : 

. . . Brother John J. will be anxious to hear 
from us, especially since his children have fallen 
under our care. 



3IO OBERLIN. 

Ere this we conclude sister Shipherd is in Ball- 
ston. She started the last of April, but was delayed 
a little in Cleveland. 

The children appear perfectly contented under 
Mrs. Stewart's care, and on the whole we think 
they are doing very well. 

As to Oberlin matters, they are progressing slow- 
ly. There are some things I have to say, which will 
probably meet you with some surprise. The steam- 
engine is not on the ground, as some colonists who 
have recently arrived supposed it would be. It 
is not expected to be there before the first of Oc- 
tober. 

The Board of Trust have concluded to purchase 
one of Mr. Andrews, of Cleveland. If the Board 
had concluded to make a contract for an engine im- 
mediately after their first meeting, it might probably 
have been obtained a little sooner. But the requi- 
site funds were not provided, and even now we have 
not the amount which Mr. Andrews requires at the 
time he commences the work, viz., three hundred 
dollars. Your place could not be sold for ready 
money, and I shall be obliged to borrow something 
more from the Institute to pay Mr. Guthrie. 

Brethren Ayers, Hall, Gibbs, Morgan and Safford 
have arrived. They are considerably disappointed 
in regard to the saw-mill. They say you encouraged 
them to expect to see the engine on the ground, at 
the time they should arrive there. You will recol- 
lect that to lay a plan is not the same thing as to 
carry it into execution. Brother Pease has been on 
the ground about four weeks. He has four hands 



APPENDIX. 3 1 I 

at work ; has chopped over about five acres. It is 
thought best to put up a part of the boarding-house, 
and transport the lumber from Captain Redington's 
mill. With our best efforts, I am confident the work 
will not go on as fast as you have calculated, and it 
seems to me that we ought studiously to avoid rais- 
ing expectations which cannot be realized. A few 
instances of this kind will do much to destroy the 
confidence of the community in the men and in 
the enterprise. Colonists who have come on say that 
Brother J. J. S. has given the pledge that young 
men who come on from the East shall receive as 
good an education for a minister, as if they had 
been at college. The constitution says that the 
pupils of the Oberlin Institute shall receive a thor- 
ough academic course. This is all I have expected 
they would receive, and all I think that we ought to 
promise. After they shall have been at the Insti- 
tute a suitable length of time to prepare for college, 
I have supposed they would go to Hudson, or to 
some other institution where they can enjoy the 
privileges of the manual labor system. Let stu- 
dents come to this institution with the expectation 
of obtaining a collegiate education, or what is equiv- 
alent to it, and find the advantages far inferior to 
those which are to be enjoyed at other institutions, 
and the result would be disappointment and prob- 
ably dissatisfaction. 

Ail who shall have been at this institution will be 
criticised with great severity, and if their education 
shall fall short of the pledge that was given, bad 
consequences must follow. If we have in addition 



312 OBERLIN. 

to a common manual labor school, a female semi- 
nary, and a system of labor connected with that 
also, I think this is all that we ought to attempt 
at present. By attempting too much, the whole 
work will be likely to come to nothing. We are 
still in Elyria. I have hired the red blacksmith shop 
and the house that belongs to it. 

This I have done to perfect the stove, iron stoves, 
etc. We seem to be needed on the ground ; but it 
seems also very important that we remain here the 
present summer at least. Individuals in different 
places have offered to exert themselves to bring the 
stove into notice, if we will send them one for inspec- 
tion. I have had the greater part of four stoves 
cast, and find that iron patterns must be obtained 
before much can be done, or those which are made 
of wood must be ironed in such a manner that they 
will not warp and spring, when put into warm damp 
sand. To prepare patterns for a cooking stove is a 
slow and difficult work. But I think, and others 
think, that the plan, of the stove is superior to any 
one in this part of the country. The first impres- 
sion on the part of those who examine it is uni- 
formly favorable. 

This is a very encouraging circumstance. If there 
were not reason to fear that we should fall short in 
regard to funds, I should think differently about 
our going immediately on to the colony grounds. 
But the stoves cannot be made a source of profit to 
the Institution, without employing considerable 
time in preparing the patterns. And if the stoves 
should succeed, that is, if they should be approved 



APPENDIX. 3 1 3 

by those who first use them, the sale of twenty the 
present year will probably prepare the way for the 
sale of double and triple that number the next 
year. Perhaps I am criminally defective in confi- 
dence in regard to the collection of funds. I have 
very much feared, and do still, that we shall be strait- 
ened for the means to carry into execution the work 
which we have undertaken. If the work is the 
Lord's, he will doubtless provide the means of car- 
rying it on. But our own skill and sagacity must be 
employed. . . . 

Yours truly and affectionately, 

P. P. Stewart. 



From J. J. Shipherd. 

Ballston, N. Y., May 28, 1833. 
To the Tritstees of the Oberlin Institute, 
Beloved Brethren: 

Evidence is daily increasing that God designs to do 
great things for the Mississippi Valley, through our 
seminary. We ought therefore to feel that a vast 
trust is committed to our hands, and exert ourselves 
to the uttermost, to accomplish the Lord's great 
work in the speediest and most effectual manner. 
That we should be of one mind is of first impor- 
tance, and of the same mind which was also in 
Christ Jesus. Let us constantly wait at his feet for 
instruction, and show ourselves one in him, and 
with him in wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. 
Of all our weighty responsibilities, the heaviest obvi- 



314 OB E KLIN. 

ously is the appointment of teachers. Upon me, as 
your agent, of course, depends the peculiar respon- 
sibility of recommending them. Feeling the weight 
of this responsibility, I have looked to the Searcher 
of hearts for direction in my choice, and have advised 
with the best counsellors among the thousands 
whom I have met in my journeyings. At length, 
having travelled some two thousand miles, visited 
various seminaries, and maturely settled my mind, 
I recommend the following appointments: I. I rec- 
ommend that you invite the Rev. Samuel R. Hall, 
Principal of the Teachers' Seminary, of Andover, 
Mass., to become the President of the Oberlin Insti- 
tute. You probably already know something of his 
reputation, although he has been publicly known 
but a little time. He was a pastor in Concord, Vt., 
for about nine years, and during most of the time 
the principal of an academy, which he there founded 
and rendered unusually flourishing and useful. He 
there wrote his lectures on School Keeping, since 
published at Boston, and widely circulated as the 
best work on education extant. The Legislature of 
New York have obtained of him ten thousand copies 
for gratuitous distribution. 

He has recently published another volume of lec- 
tures on Female Teachers, etc., and several other 
popular works, mostly school-books. 

His present station indicates the estimate placed 
upon him by the trustees of the Teachers' Semi- 
nary, Andover, Mass., among whom are men best 
qualified to judge. Many applied for the superin- 
tendence of that seminary, but were all rejected in 



APPENDIX. 3 I 5 

favor of Mr. Hall, who did not ask the station, but 
when invited to it, declined ; afterward, however, 
yielding to repeated solicitations. At the head of 
that seminary, he has been constantly rising for two 
and a half years, and raising the institution till it 
now numbers about one hundred and fifty students. 
I spent a few days with him, in his school and out, 
and confidently recommend him as better qualified 
to superintend our institution than any man I have 
met, or heard of who can be obtained ; and indeed I 
know of no one, could we obtain him, in whom 
there is more of what we want, than in Mr. Hall, 
for, I. His piety is more like the Divine Teacher's 
than usual. He labors with his might to do good 
in school and out. 2. He is better acquainted with 
the art of teaching than any one I can find, having 
studied it diligently for many years. 3. His educa- 
tion, although not collegiate, is sufficiently extensive, 
much more profound than is usual with graduates 
from our best colleges. 4. He is a manual labor 
man. 5. He is of suitable age, thirty-eight years. 
6. He is a practical teacher, makes everything a stu- 
dent learns useful to him. 7. He does not teach 
for money, but to do good. 8. He is deeply inter- 
ested in the West. 9. His government excels any 
I am acquainted with. He teaches his pupils to 
govern themselves ; and, 10. I think he would, to in- 
crease his usefulness, accept your invitation. Mr, 
Hall could not consistently leave Andover for Ohio 
till the Fall of 1834, but should be elected as soon 
as consistent, and aid in all our plans for buildings, 
teachers, apparatus, etc. The architect should di« 



3l6 BERLIN. 

rect in laying the corner-stone, and should you elect 
him, he says he wishes at least six months, after 
resigning his charge at Andover, to visit the best 
literary institutions of our land, and otherwise qual- 
ify himself for his responsible station. His salary 
is now about twelve hundred dollars annually, but 
I advise that you offer him four hundred dollars, 
with the use of a dwelling house and a few acres of 
land, his pasturage, hay for his horse and two cows, 
and his wood, and that we defray the expense of his 
removal with his family to Ohio, which will probably 
be about one hundred to one hundred and twenty- 
five dollars. This will be about as good as one thou- 
sand dollars at Andover, and I think he is willing to 
act upon Oberlin principles. In the second place, I 
recommend that you elect Mr. James K. Shipherd, 
Principal of Thetford Academy, Vt, Professor of 
Languages in the Oberlin Institute, and commit to 
him the superintendence of the seminary till Mr. 
Hall arrive and enter upon the duties of his office. 
I cannot speak as freely of this gentleman as the 
former, for he is my brother. However, I can say ? 
I do not recommend him because he is my brother, 
but because I think him better qualified than any 
other one we can obtain for the place. He was in 
good standing in college (Middlebury, Vt.), unusually 
successful in common-school teaching, and is now 
highly esteemed as Principal of Thetford Academy, 
Vt. He took charge of that academy when it was in a 
low state, and has caused it, in a scientific and moral 
sense, to flourish more than for many years before. 
The trustees of that seminary desire him to engage 



APPENDIX. 3 1 7 

with them for ten years, and are extremely unwilling 
to part with him. Several of his scholars expect to 
enter our Institute the first of December next, and 
expressed to me the desire that he should be elected, 
as I now propose. He is young, twenty-two and 
one half years of age, decidedly pious, studious, par- 
ticularly in the science of teaching, loves to teach, 
practical in teaching, very successful in government, 
a manual labor man, and although well pleased with 
his present location, would, I think, accept the ap- 
pointment I propose, should you think it best to 
make it. I advise that you offer him three hundred 
dollars salary, with his board, till he shall marry, and 
then a house, etc., like the President's. 

In the third place, I advise that you invite Miss 
Louisa Gifford, assistant in the Geneva Female Sem- 
inary, N. Y., to become teacher of the female de- 
partment. Last winter I requested Mrs. Ricord, 
the Principal of that seminary, to recommend a 
teacher for our manual labor female school. I had 
previously learned that her school was scarcely, if at 
all, excelled, and fully acquainted her with our plans 
and circumstances. She, evidently feeling her re- 
sponsibility, and acting understanding^, recom- 
mended the Miss Gifford whom I now propose. I 
have not time to describe her definitely, but believe 
we shall be safe in taking her at Mrs. Ricord's rec- 
ommendation. Besides I saw her considerably, and 
think her best qualified for the place of any lady 
whom we can obtain. So think the best of judges 
at Geneva. 

As our female school will be small for a season, I 



3 1 8 OBERLW. 

propose that we offer her one hundred dollars a year 
and her board. 

In the fourth place, I recommend that you elect 
Dr. James Dascomb, of Boscawen, N. H., lecturer, 
and professor of chemistry, botany, physical educa- 
tion or anatomy, and natural philosophy. Dr. Das- 
comb is a young physician of promise, a pupil of 
Dr. Mussey of Dartmouth College, said by him to 
be decidedly the best scholar in his class of fifty 
members. He is highly recommended by Mr. Hall, 
whom I nominate as President, as a Christian, a phy- 
sician and lecturer. Brother Hall and I think that 
the physician of the colony should be a lecturer in 
the seminary, because we can't afford a full salary to 
such a lecturer, or full employment to a physician. 

I propose that we offer him two hundred and fifty 
dollars salary. His practice as physician and duties 
as a lecturer will no more interfere with each other 
than those of Dr. Mussey and others who not unfre- 
quently practise as physicians, and serve as professors 
in colleges. 

I desire a decision upon Dr. Dascomb's case soon, 
because I wish to secure a physician to our colony 
and seminary, and he will need considerable time to 
prepare for the duties of his professorship. Besides, 
he will, if not invited, soon be so settled that he 
will not accept our invitation. He will not, if 
elected, probably enter upon his professorship till 
Brother Hall does upon his presidency, say Septem- 
ber, 1834. My brother and Miss Gifford should be, 
if invited at all, requested to enter upon their duties 
by the first of December next, and they may sustain 



APPENDIX. 319 

the school till Brothers Hall and Dascomb join 
them. This may (and yet I hope it will not) seem 
premature. I believe it is safe and best, and for the 
following reasons : We can obtain the requisite 
funds. For evidence of this see my previous commu- 
nications, and add to the evidence they afford the 
fact that should my life be spared till September 
next, I shall in all probability fill out our colony, 
and through that means and others increase our 
subscription to at least ten thousand dollars. I pro- 
pose also that some efficient agent be appointed to 
aid me in collecting funds. I have some hope that 
my brother's church (Troy, N. Y.) will release him 
for a season. I am also negotiating with a Mr 
Mills, of Dumbarton, N. H. Whether either of them 
can be obtained before Fall, or at all, I know not, but 
I hope one of them, or some other one well qualified, 
can be secured. A good agent is rarely found. 

That we can raise the fifteen thousand dollars 
contemplated I am confident, and I believe my con- 
fidence is well founded. The wise and good uni- 
formly approve our plans, and have aided, and 
express a determination yet more to aid, in execut- 
ing- them. To fill out the fifteen thousand dollars 
will doubtless be much easier than to do what, 
through the grace of God, we have already ex- 
ecuted. This amount will provide for one hundred 
students, whose tuition will pay the salaries recom- 
mended. Tuition may be fifteen dollars a year, 
that is, fifteen hundred dollars in all, and the sala- 
ries I recommend with board amount only to eleven 
hundred and fifty. 



320 OBERLIX. 

That we can have one hundred students in Sep- 
tember, 1834, cannot be doubted. There are mul- 
titudes of them desiring such privileges, and unless 
we provide them many of them can never enjoy 
them. You can build what will be necessary for 
the commencement of the academic department by 
the first of December next, and during the succeed- 
ing year enlarge so as to employ Brothers Hall and 
Dascomb as proposed. That teachers may be on 
the ground when needed, they should be elected as 
soon as consistent, especially those who commence 
the school, viz., my brother and Miss Gifford, if you 
should see fit to appoint them, and they to accept. 
You perceive in my recent communications that I 
have latterly enlarged our plans of operation, and it 
may seem to you unadvisedly, but I trust the follow- 
ing reasons will satisfy you all : The manual labor 
system requires that the student be carried through 
his whole course. If the institution be a mere pre- 
paratory school for college, the students are always 
mere apprentices in manual labor, and the benefits 
of the system are realized but in a small degree. 
Should we fit them for college only, there is no 
institution to which we could send them where 
their manual labor facilities would be continued 
equal to Oberlin. 

Hudson, for want of land, can never render the 
manual labor of students extensively productive for 
their support. The Lane Seminary has and can 
have but little land, and is full and will be full with- 
out our students. Moreover, the Principal of the 
Oneida Institute assured me that a large farm was 



APTEXDIX. 32 1 

indispensable to great success in extensive opera- 
tions, and that the student should be carried 
through his whole course. Again, the making of 
our seminary equal to an academy, college, and theo- 
logical seminary will not at all curtail the useful- 
ness of Hudson and others ; for if we will furnish 
such advantages as I propose, students will fill our 
seminary who would never enter those now in ex- 
istence. 

The revivals of three years past have brought hun- 
dreds of youth into our churches who desire to be 
educated for the ministry and other useful services, 
who will not incur debt necessary in such a course 
as they must pursue at any institutions now in being 
in our country. This I know from actual conference 
with youth at the East. Hundreds of promising 
youth will doubtless be educated for God's service, 
or not educated, as we shall or shall not provide for 
them the means of complete education by their own 
industry and economy. Moreover, it is about as 
easy to obtain requisite funds, etc., for a complete 
education, as for one merely elementary. For the 
amount of the subscription usually corresponds with 
the character of the institution for which it is raised, 
and students would not go so far westward merely 
for an academic course. Let us therefore begin with 
the academic, and, as Providence permit, grow into 
the collegiate and theological, which, I doubt not, 
will be as fast as our students shall advance in their 
studies. Had we to raise the ordinary permanent 
fund for president's and professors' salaries, we 
should fail, but the assurance of all the students we 



322 OBERLIN. 

can accommodate is as good a pledge for their sala- 
ries as permanent funds. What enlargement I have 
made in our plans, the development of facts has 
made necessary. 



From J. J. Shipherd. 

Boston, Mass., Aug. 9, 1833. 
To the Trustees of the Oberlin Institute. 
Dear Brethren : 

I hoped long before this to have received a full an- 
swer to my last long and important communication. 
I have only heard that you sustained my nomination 
of my brother, J. K. Shipherd. He has declined. 
The trustees of the academy he now instructs will 
not at all consent to his leaving them. Being about 
to return to Ohio, and under the necessity of finding 
some one to fill my brother's place, I have visited 
Andover Theological Seminary, and engaged, if you 
approve, Mr. Seth H. Waldo, who I believe will suc- 
ceed as well as my brother. He will have to leave 
the seminary in his Senior year, but I can nowhere 
else find the man we want, and the Faculty of the 
seminary consent to his leaving. They, the present 
and collegiate classmates of Mr. Waldo, and S. R. 
Hall, in whose Teachers' Seminary Mr. W. has 
taught, all recommend him. I shall not therefore 
describe him particularly. He has taught occasion- 
ally. for twelve years, and with success, both in com* 
mon schools and academies. He is about thirty 
years of age. Should he go, he is to have four 



APPENDIX. $2$ 

hundred dollars salary, and fifty dollars for his ex- 
penses to the ground. Being, like all others, in debt 
for his education, he cannot consistently engage for 
a less sum. The fifty dollars for his expenses may 
properly be taken from the outfit money which I am 
collecting. The four hundred dollars must be raised 
by tuition. Forty scholars, at one half the tuition 
which the students of the Oneida Institute pay, will 
pay the four hundred dollars. The forty we can 
unquestionably have, if room can be made for them. 
If not, the smaller number must pay higher tuition. 
This must ever be our rule. Students must pay such 
tuition as will raise our teachers' salaries. This rule 
has worked well at the Oneida Institute for years. 
It is not safe except in manual labor schools. If 
you approve the nomination and conditions, please 
forward as soon as may be an official invitation, 
with a pledge of the four hundred and fifty dollars, 
which I am willing to be personally responsible for, 
and direct to Seth H. Waldo, Andover Theological 
Seminary, Andover, Mass. As he has seen me only 
of the Board, please express your readiness to re- 
ceive him as a brother, and sustain him as a teachef. 
My invitation to him, which I desire you to ratify, 
is that he take charge of the Oberlin Institute till 
it assume a collegiate character, and then if experi- 
ment prove that he is qualified, that he fill the pro- 
fessorship of languages. If I mistake not, he will 
prove the man we shall need at first and permanently. 
I am happy to find that prejudices against our en- 
terprise are wearing away, and there is increasing 
evidence that it is the Lord's good work, and will 



324 BERLIN*. 

prosper. I have recently developed the plan fully 
to the Rev. Mr. Woodbridge of this city, and obtained 
his unqualified approbation of it — from the Infant 
School to the Theological Seminary. His opinion is 
probably as valuable at that of any American. 

He has travelled extensively in Europe with refer- 
ence to education, spent about a year at Fellenberg's 
celebrated school at Hofwyl in Switzerland, was 
favorably noticed by literary men and societies in 
Europe, has published a most valuable geography, 
now edits the American Annals of Education, the 
first work on that subject in our land. In short he 
makes, and has for many years made, education the 
subject of his study and object of his effort. While 
the distinctive features of our plan are objected to 
by some, the ablest men and the most experienced 
teachers that I have met fully and decidedly approve 
them. We have only to trust in God, and go for- 
ward with diligence and zeal, and we may greatly 
bless the perishing millions of the West. Being so 
distant from you I have been compelled to do what 
I should not, without your previous approbation, had 
I been near, but trust I shall find on my return that 
we are one in judgment as well as one in heart. If 
the Lord will I shall see Oberlin between the fifteenth 
and twentieth of September next. That the Lord 
may permit us to meet in peace and labor together 
"with one mind and with one accord," is the prayer 
of 

Your fellow servant and brother, 

John J. Shipherd. 



APPENDIX. 325 

From J. J. Shipherd. 

Utica, Aug. 23, 1833. 

Dearly Beloved Parents : 

I write you under circumstances of interest which 
cannot be expressed by letter. I left Ballston, with 
my dear wife and babe, on Monday morning last, 
and arrived here Tuesday night — thus far prospered 
of the Lord on our journey. Wednesday morning 
brother Fayette and sister Collins arrived from the 
West, and last evening I had the privilege of binding 
them together with a cord which death only can 
sunder. I rejoice that my dear brother is well mar- 
ried. I am happy to call his Elmina sister, and doubt 
not my loved parents will readily receive her into 
their hearts as a daughter. Esther and I know her 
worth, and believe it to be rare, of vastly greater 
value to brother in his ministry than the wealth and 
estimables of some city ladies, whom others might 
have chosen. I hope you will soon enjoy the privi- 
lege of judging for yourselves. We part to-morrow 
morning, they for the East, and we for the West. 
In parting with them, I seem to be leaving my loved 
parents, and all my dear eastern friends. I have not 
before seemed to be separated from you. I have 
hitherto been like a ship in port, frequently visited, 
but now I seem like one whose deck is well-nigh 
cleared, but still bound fast by a cable to its native 
port, and yet its swelling canvas urging it to a far- 
off ocean. Yes, loved parents, I feel much of that 
which swells the bosom of him who casts his last 



326 BERLIN. 

lingering look upon the home of his childhood, clus- 
tered around with the endearments of parental, filial, 
fraternal and other tender associations, and then 
looks abroad upon a distant land unwelcome and 
desolate, because the dear ones left behind are not 
there. Since I began this letter I have had a desper- 
ate struggle with my Shipherd heart, but thanks be 
unto God who giveth me the victory. I previously 
hoped that in a gospel sense I "should henceforth 
know no one after the flesh," but " the fondness of 
a creature's love, how strong it strikes the sense," 
and how malignant that arch foe who, vanquished 
once, soon renews his attacks. 

But for Him who succors them that are tempted, I 
might be overcome, and relinquish Oberlin for per- 
sonal enjoyment among my kindred. But through 
Christ strengthening me, I can bid you all farewell, 
and urge on my great and good work till my Master 
shall bid me rest. . . . 

Take, dear parents, to yourselves, and present to 
our dear sister and niece, and duly to others, the 
love of your affectionate children— 

John and Esther. 



From J. J. Shipherd. 

Oberlin, Dec. 13, 1833. 
Dearest of Parents : 

I have before me two precious letters, written by 
your dear, dear hands, and received at the hands of 
Brother Reed, and Middleton. They have been be- 



APPENDIX. 327 

fore me these two weeks, glowing with parental love, 
and waking up in my soul filial affection, but I could 
not answer them till now, without sacrificing my 
Master's important interests in Oberlin. I say hon- 
estly, dear parents, you live in the warmest chamber 
of my heart, and I feel grieved, but not guilty, that 
I have, not written you before. I have been and am 
yet pressed out of measure with Oberlin duties. 
The great Pilot of Zion has committed to my poor 
hand the helm of a noble ship, which is in the midst 
of breakers, and laden with Zion's precious treasures. 
It has seemed to me that in these circumstances I 
might not let go the helm even to seize the pen in 
behalf of my beloved parents, or any friend however 
dear. 

Do you ask then if Oberlin has possessed my heart 
instead of those who gave me birth, and blessings 
numberless? Oberlin is Christ's, and much as I love 
father and mother, Christ is dearer than both 
and all on earth beside. . . . We have lived some 
two months in a basement room of the Oberlin In- 
stitute fifteen feet square — some weeks of the time 
with another family, and three or four boarders, and 
Esther without a girl. Now we have great latitude, 
for we have that room alone — Eliza Branch excepted 
— and I have one over it for a study and secretary's 
office in common with the principal. Esther and I 
have labored unusually hard since our return, but 
God has given us strength equal to our day. \\ e 
are all well, colds excepted. Our little ones are in 
the Institute's primary department, Eliza Branch 
teacher. Our whole colony have been remarkably 



328 OBERLIN. 

blessed with health and prosperity. Eleven families 
are on the ground, and others waiting to come as 
soon as houses can be provided. 

Some who spent the summer here have gone east- 
ward for their families. Our colonial ground is 
nearly all disposed of. . . . The Lord is to be praised 
that we were enabled to open our institute at the 
appointed time, Dec. 3d, and with thirty scholars. 
We have now thirty-four boarding scholars, and ex- 
pect forty for the winter. Applicants are without 
number, from Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico, from 
Lower Canada to Long Island Sound, from Michigan 
to the Atlantic. The scholars study and work well. 
Five minutes after the manual labor bell strikes, the 
hammer, saws, etc., of the mechanical students wake 
all around us, and the axe-men in the woods break- 
ing the " ribs of nature" make all crack. Nearly all 
our visitors — and they are not few — express surprise 
that so great a work has been wrought here in so 
short a time. God be praised ! 

I feel as I said in my sleep the other night, " Ober- 
lin will rise, and the devil cannot hinder it." This 
my sweet assurance, I hope, rests on God, without 
whom we can do nothing. . . . 

May our Heavenly Father bless you in all things. 
Your affectionate son, 

John J. Shipherd. 



APPENDIX. 329 

Mrs. M. P. Dascomb to Home Friends, Dun- 
barton, N. H. 

Oberlin, May 24, 1834. 

. . . Next morning at five o'clock we took stage 
for Elyria, which is ten miles from Oberlin — road 
very bad from ruts and mud. We were in constant 
danger of overturning. Once when we came to a 
ditch in the road the gentlemen got out and took 
down a fence, so that we could turn aside into the 
adjoining field and ride around the obstacle. At 
"Elyria we dined, and obtained a two-horse wagon to 
transport us, and two gentlemen from New England 
going to the Institute as students, to our journey's 
end. We found the wagon a very comfortable con- 
veyance, and I was in no fear of being turned out 
into the mud, for the driver assured us it could not 
turn over. You cannot conceive of a more miserable 
road than we had, the last two miles especially, but 
still I enjoyed the ride., and our party were all very 
cheerful. When passing through the woods I was 
so delighted with the black squirrels, the big trees, 
and above all the beautiful wild flowers, that at times 
I quite forgot to look out for the scraggy limbs that 
every now and then gave us a rude brush, till a 
warning from Dr. D. that I would get my eyes torn 
out, seconded perhaps by an unceremonious lash 
from a neighboring bough, would call me to the duty 
of self-preservation. Glad were we when an opening 
in the forest dawned upon us, and Oberlin was seen. 
That, said our driver, is " the city." We rode 



330 OB E RUN. 

through its principal street, now and then coming 
in contact with a stump, till we were set down, not 
at the coffee house or tea house, but the boarding 
house. Mr. and Mrs. Waldo greeted us cordially, 
and I have been " very happy from that day to this." 
However, I have not got through my story, as from 
my last sentence we should have supposed when 
children. We were soon introduced to Mr. and Mrs. 
Stewart, superintendents of the boarding and man- 
ual labor departments. They were formerly mis- 
sionaries among the Choctaws, and are the very best 
of persons. The next day we attended meeting, 
which is held for this season in the school-room, 
though it is already too small for the congregation. 
Mr. Waldo is true when he says: "I never have 
seen so interesting an assembly." He preaches 
sometimes, also Mr. Shipherd. Till we obtain a 
minister we have preaching in the afternoon only, 
and the morning is spent in a Bible exercise. All 
the congregation are members of the Bible class. 
This is to me more interesting than preaching even. 
I assure you we have Bible scholars at Oberlin. Our 
Sabbath-school is held at half-past eight in the 
morning ; an excellent superintendent. I shall wish 
some time to tell you more particulars of this 
school. We have the lesson recited at the Bible 
class the previous Sabbath. No question books are 
used. Our religious privileges are great here. 
Christians are willing to do their duty, and they help 
to make meetings interesting. Most of the students 
are hopefully pious. They are generally interest- 
ing, and very intelligent. Some of them are ap- 



APPENDIX. 331 

parently as cultivated as any I have ever known in 
New England institutions. I hope before many 
months to write a long letter to our dear aunt, Mrs. 
Putnam, giving a more particular account of this 
colony, institution, etc., but you will wish my first 
letter to tell of ourselves, and though other things 
are more important you can learn them from that 
letter. We have now been here two weeks, health 
and spirits good, and Oberlin already looks to us 
like home. Things about us are all going on so 
briskly, one cannot well feel sleepy. The colonists 
work with all diligence, and students too, at work- 
ing hours. You hear great trees falling, see fires 
blazing, and new houses going up in all directions. 
There are a few log-houses, which were put up at 
first, but now they are all building framed houses. 
A large house for Mr. Shipherd will soon be fin- 
ished, and this summer another large and very con- 
venient boarding house will be completed. The 
seminary buildings will not .be erected until next 
year, w r hen they design also to build the professors' 
houses. We need the boarding house very much at 
present. We have sixty or more boarders, and 
of course must submit to some inconveniences, but 
we do it cheerfully, looking forward to better times. 
My room is as large as your sitting room, is painted, 
furnished with two chairs and all our trunks, which 
make good seats when we have callers. Beside this 
furniture we have a good table and two libraries be- 
longing to the institution and Mr. Shipherd. These 
are indeed valuable, and of course pleasant. . . . 
Do not let me forget the food, or mother will not for- 



S3 2 OBERLW. 

give me. It is plain, but palatable. We shall have 
more variety when the land is cultivated. We shall 
have good bread, and milk, much of the time this 
summer. We always have good wheat and brown 
bread, and generally good butter. Can have meat 
twice a day if we choose, but it is not very good, and 
I generally prefer vegetable food. Our potatoes, 
which we have for a rarity, are not like yours, but 
rather heavy. Puddings and nut-cakes are made 
sometimes, but no pies. Cheese we have now and 
then, and very good. We have hot water with milk 
and sugar if we choose, but most prefer cold. I like 
my drink quite as well as tea and coffee, and better, 
unless the latter have sugar. Our cold water is not 
so good as the hills of New Hampshire furnish ; can 
hardly tell what it will be when we are an older 
country. It is not, however, unpleasant to the taste. 
To close : we have all that is necessary for us, and 
so many blessings, we do not stop to trouble our- 
selves about minor things. In a few months or 
years we can hope for more of the fruits of the 
earth. Our wheat fields look finely, though they 
were a little injured by heavy frosts. Most of the 
foliage of the woods is dead from the same cause. 
We are hoping for a new set of leaves. As to our 
manner of spending time: Dr. D. spends most of 
his in school duties. And just let me pay him a 
compliment. I do think him one of the best of 
teachers. He interests his classes deeply, and enters 
into the work with all his heart. He has had many 
calls in this place for medical aid, considering that 
the colonists have not before been sick ; some diffi- 



APPENDIX. 3^3 

cult and dangerous cases among the students, but 
they are now doing well. I spend three or four 
hours a day hearing classes recite. Mrs. Waldo also 
assists in school. The females are very interesting; 
most of them are from other States, and many from 
a distance. That department is not yet distinct 
from the other. I shall write Brother L. soon. He 
would be happy and very useful here, but I shall 
not advise him to come till we get a president, and I 
know not that it will then be best for him to come, 
if he wishes to study theology, as preparatory and 
college studies will be pursued at present. 



From J. J. Shipherd to John Keep. 

Cincinnati, Dec. 13, 1834. 
Dear Brother Keep: 

I have been from home nearly three weeks, but 
through illness, bad roads, and the unfruitfulness of 
the field in which I have been, I have obtained but 
little subscription to our beloved Institute — some 
two hundred dollars only. I have, however, obtained 
and communicated information of importance to 
Oberlin and the cause of Christ. And here God has 
kindly opened a door to our infant seminary, wide 
and effectual, through which I sanguinely hope it 
will send forth a multitude of well qualified laborers 
into the plenteous harvest of our Lord. I have here 
found the man for the president of our loved Insti- 
tute, that is, Rev. Asa Mahan. I desire you to call 
a meeting of the Board as soon as practicable, and 



334 BERLIN. 

present Brother Mahan as the man of my choice for 
the following reasons : 

I. I was reluctant to come from Columbus to Cin- 
cinnati, but in prayer for direction, was constrained 
to come on. Having arrived here, I cannot see why 
I should have been sent, except to obtain a president 
and professor, and through them other benefits for 
Oberlin. 2. All the "glorious good fellows," as 
Doctor Beecher used to call them while they were 
in Lane Seminary, who, as he says, have done right 
in leaving on account of the abominable laws which 
the trustees have lately passed — all of them say 
that Brother Mahan is the man, and that if he be- 
comes president of our institution, they shall apply 
to it for liberty there to finish their education. 3. 
Rev. Joel Parker of New York, former classmate of 
Brother Mahan, advised him to prepare for such a 
station, on account of that structure and cultivation 
of mind peculiarly fitted for that office. 4. Rev. 
Charles G. Finney said that he had the best mind in 
Western New York while he was there laboring. 5. 
He has been of studious habits from early life, al- 
though on account of his father's poverty his advan- 
tages were limited till his seventeenth year. Then 
being converted, he entered upon a course of study 
preparatory to the ministry. From that time, at 
Hamilton College and at Andover Theological Semi- 
nary, and since he has been in the ministry, he has 
been of studious habits. Consequently, 6. He is a 
critical scholar in the different sciences, but espe- 
cially in intellectual and moral philosophy, a depart- 
ment of science commonly assigned to the president. 



APPENDIX. 335 

7. He has, it seems, a peculiar faculty for govern- 
ment, manifest in his family, in presiding over delib- 
erative bodies, and in his influence over the alert 
minds, with which he comes in contact. 8. He is of 
good age, being thirty-five. 9. He is inclined and 
able to labor abundantly. 10. He is a man of in- 
flexible Christian principle who follows the straight 
line of rectitude, while even great and good men 
vibrate. II. He has a well educated and excellent 
wife who is indeed a helpmeet, and two well man- 
aged little daughters. 12. In the midst of a city's 
temptations, they have maintained a Christian econ- 
omy and simplicity in their style of living. 13. His 
interest in our institution is intense, and he would be 
willing to toil and sacrifice in its behalf to any ex- 
tent ; so would his estimable wife. 14. He has been 
most successful as an agent, and would doubtless 
through his favorable acquaintance in New York 
City and elsewhere secure to us much funds. 15. 
Arthur Tappan has pledged to the students who have 
left Lane Seminary, and who recommend Brother 
Mahan, five thousand dollars and a professorship, 
for the establishment of an institute like ours, and 
these brethren say — about twenty in number — that 
if Brother Mahan becomes our president and Brother 
Morgan a professor, they will turn all in with us. 
Finally Brother Mahan is a revival minister of the 
millennial stamp. I am therefore sure that God will 
influence all our beloved associates in the Board to 
concur in this nomination, for there is much rare 
qualification for the office, and no essential defect 
of character manifest. 



33 6 BERLIN. 

I farther recommend to our Board the Rev. John 
Morgan, now of Clinton, Oneida Co., N. Y«, for the 
professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy. 
I do it, — I. Because Brother T. D. Weld recom- 
mends him, and Brother Mahan thinks we cannot 
find his equal for the place. 2. The students before 
alluded to were at the Lane Seminary under his 
tuition, and think he greatly excels as a teacher. 3. 
Dr. Cox of New York, whose pupil he was, I believe, 
speaks highly of him. 4. I am assured that his 
moral excellencies are like those which I have as- 
cribed to Brother Mahan. 5. The students who 
propose to go to Oberlin, and turn in all their in- 
fluence on his account, and Brother Mahan's, have, 
Dr. Beecher says, the finest class of minds he ever 
knew. Not having seen him I cannot speak as fully 
and confidently as I can of Brother Mahan, but have 
no doubt that we ought to elect him. I trust the 
Lord will unite the Board in the election. The elec- 
tion of these men, it strikes me, may, under God, 
link our dear institution in a chain which may en- 
compass much of earth, binding multitudes in holy 
allegiance to God. 

I design to leave this city on the twenty-third for 
New York City, in company with Brother Mahan, 
who has consented to attend me as an associate 
agent, and I have written Brother Morgan to meet 
us there. I desire therefore that you should forward 
your call without any delay to New York, to Rev. Asa 
Mahan as president, and Rev. John Morgan as pro- 
fessor of mathematics. I desire also that you for- 
ward a copy of the call of Brother Mahan to this 



APPENDIX. 337 

place, and a copy of Brother Morgan's to Clinton, N. 
Y. I should not hasten this business thus did I not 
believe that God approves, and that by complying 
with my request some thousands of dollars may be 
secured, and an immense amount of good which 
would otherwise be lost. Do, dear brother, dispatch 
this business and write to me and them at New York 
City as soon as may be. Your son will inform you 
about fallen Lane Seminary, what I have not room 
to write. 

Your Brother, 

John J. Shipherd. 



From J. J. Shipherd — Pastoral Letter. 

New York, Jan. 27, 1835. 
To all the Beloved in Christ Jesus, whom 
I have gathered, not only at Oberlin, but in my 
heart ; " Grace be unto you and peace from God our 
Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ." I thank 
my God upon every remembrance of you, always in 
every prayer of mine for you all, making request with 
joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first 
day until now ; being confident of this very thing, 
that He which hath begun a good work in you will 
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. That you 
may be thus perfected, " I pray that your love may 
abound yet more and more in knowledge and all 
judgment ; that ye may approve things that are ex- 
cellent ; that ye may be sincere and without offence 
till the day of Jesus Christ ; being filled with the 



338 OBERUN, 

fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto 
the glory and praise of God." And for this, beloved, 
I not only pray but now write touching a few of the 
many things which concern your peace, your useful- 
ness, and the glory of God our Heavenly Father. 
Trusting that you reciprocate my Christian love and 
confidence, I speak freely as unto my children, my 
brethren and my sisters in the Lord. 

And first I thank God for the revival of his pre- 
cious work among you, and say with emphasis, 
"Quench not the Spirit." Oh, "Grieve not the 
Spirit of God." That you may not," ponder with 
much prayer the scriptures on brotherly love and 
Christian union found in Eph. iv. 1-16; Phil. ii. 1 — 17; 
and other kindred scriptures. Also that you may 
not faint, " Search the scriptures, feed upon and di- 
gest them till you feel their nourishment in your 
hearts and their controlling influence in your lives. 
By much prayer also, drink in of the Spirit largely. 
Yet, beloved, " Watch unto prayer," lest in an evil 
hour the world overcome you. If you will do your 
duty the revival will never cease ; but the fountains 
which the Spirit has graciously opened in your souls 
will rise and overflow till they form a sea of glory. 
If you will do your duty, Oberlin will be a living 
fountain whose waters will refresh the far-off, thirsty, 
dying Gentiles and wretched Jews. " Be vigilant," 
therefore, dearly beloved, "watch and pray," and 
never sleep, as do others. 

In the second place, dear brethren and sisters, per- 
mit me to exhort you to be " the Lord's peculiar 
people, zealous of good works." I would not have 



APPENDIX. 339 

you needlessly singular, but I would have you actu- 
ally singular, even among the churches if they con- 
tinue as they now are. Far better to be unlike them 
and all on earth, than to be unlike Christ. Instead 
of taking the blessed Son of God as their pattern, 
the churches have measured themselves by them- 
selves, and compared themselves with themselves 
unwisely, till the image of Christ is so lost that God 
will not instamp their image upon the world. I be- 
lieve that it is because we are so unlike his Son that 
he delays to give our likeness to pagan nations. 
Why should God give a spurious Christianity to the 
nations yet to receive the gospel ? No, beloved, the 
Church must put off her earthly attire and put on 
Christ before she can receive to her millennial em- 
brace a regenerated world. It must be so. When 
the people of God do this they will be peculiar in 
their diet, dress, and all that appertains to them. 
The simplicity of Christ will characterize them. 
This, dearly beloved, you have acknowledged in your 
" colonial covenant." " Now, therefore, perform 
the doing of it." That you would, there were pleas- 
ing indications when we parted. Oh, how sweet that 
last meeting that we held in relation to bur colonial 
covenant ! And how delightful to see even the aged 
members of our body crucifying the flesh that Christ 
might be glorified. My heart's desire and prayer to 
God has been that they might be steadfast and gain 
the victory. Let me beseech you all to be thorough 
in excluding from your diet, dress, and all pertaining 
to you, everything which in the least hinders your 
sanctification or the conversion of the world. This 



340 OBERLIN. 

subject is magnified in my estimation as one which 
pertains to salvation, and I pray that it may be in 
yours. In these respects may you be a " peculiar 
people." Moreover, brethren, be peculiarly fervent 
in your charity toward all saints, not merely of your 
distinctive name, but of Christ's dearer name. Let 
the door of your church be as wide as the door of 
heaven, but no wider, and strive to unite the dear 
people of God under " one fold and one shepherd." 
To your virtue " add knowledge," for u knowledge is 
power." And permit me here to request thatyou enter 
early upon the system of colonial education, which 
I recommended last spring, and which the brethren 
then on the ground resolved to adopt. Reflection 
and conversation with intelligent persons have con- 
firmed my opinion that the system proposed is one 
peculiarly worthy of Christ's disciples, not only on 
account of its intellectual but its moral bearing also. 
And as property is convertible into moral power, 
look well to the state of your farms, shops, and all 
your temporal interests. " Be diligent in business," 
remembering Pastor Oberlin's plea that good roads 
be made for Christ's sake. 

Peculiar excellence in these respects will commend 
your religion, and aid in casting up a highway for the 
Lord. Let me also exhort you, beloved, to be pecu- 
liarly zealous and liberal in sustaining the Institute. 
This is expected of you abroad, and reasonably too. 
You may through that institution preach by proxy 
with great power. Let it live then in your prayers, 
your contributions, your efforts to board its pupils 
and promote its various interests, and do all this as 



APPENDIX. 34I 

unto the Lord. The peculiarity which I desire in 
this case is, that you do all this, not like most com- 
munities surrounding literary institutions, for secular 
gain, but for Christ's sake. Furthermore, lest you 
become alienated in your minds, keep up an open, 
frequent intercourse, of a truly Christian character. 
I have deeply regretted that through the cares of 
the world we were last season so estranged from 
each other. Do, beloved, set aside everything which 
hinders you from knowing each other as members of 
one body in Christ our Lord. Let religion be your 
theme, and praise and prayer a portion of your em- 
ployment in all your social visits. Also strive to 
keep up a kind of Christian intercourse with your 
neighbors around Oberlin. Let not those dear 
brethren who labor in Sabbath-schools and other- 
wise for the salvation of those about you be weary 
in well doing, but may others join them till no neigh- 
borhood is left. Moreover, let me exhort you, as 
the Lord's peculiar people, to be zealous in finding 
out and employing those means by which the world 
is to be converted. Fear not, brethren, to lead in 
doing right. There must be a mighty overturning 
before He whose right it is shall rule over all nations, 
and the servants of God will have to turn much up- 
side down, as Paul did, before all will be right. 
There must also be many inventions of moral as well 
as physical machinery before Satan's throne will be 
demolished. Who should be forward in these over- 
turnings and inventions if not my dear people at 
Oberlin ? You know, beloved, I would not have you 
rash or inconsiderate in changing a single custom ; 



34 2 OB E RUN. 

but I would have you study and pray out the mind 
of the Spirit and execute it promptly, without asking 
how the world or even the Church would like it. 
Nothing is more impolitic as well as wicked than to 
substitute expediency for duty. This is now a 
prevalent sin of the church, which nullifies her 
power. It is so prevalent in all the churches that I 
fear some of you, beloved, if not all, will yield to its 
paralyzing influence. My fears are excited by your 
recent expressions of unwillingness to have youth of 
color educated in our Institute. Those expressions 
were a grief to me, such as I have rarely suffered. 
Although I knew that with some of you the doctrine 
of expediency was against the immediate abolition 
of slavery, because slaves are not qualified for free- 
dom, I supposed you thought it expedient and duty 
to elevate and educate them as fast as possible, that 
therefore you would concur in receiving those of 
promising talent and piety into our institution. So 
confident was I that this would be the prevailing 
sentiment of Oberlin in the colony and Institute that 
about a year ago I informed eastern inquirers that 
we received students according to character, irre- 
spective of color; and, beloved, whatever the expe- 
diency or prejudice of some may say, does not duty 
require this? Most certainly. 

For, i. They are needed as ministers, missionaries, 
and teachers for the land of their fathers, and for 
their untaught, injured, perishing brethren of our 
country. 2. Their education seems highly essential 
if not indispensable to the emancipation and salva- 
tion of their colored brethren. 3. They will be ele- 



APPENDIX. 343 

Vated much more rapidly if taught with whites, 
hitherto far more favored, than if educated sepa- 
rately. 4. The extremity of their wrongs at the 
white man's hand requires that the best possible 
means be employed, and without delay, for their ed- 
ucation. 5. They can nowhere enjoy needed educa- 
tion unless admitted to our institution, or others 
established for whites. 6. God made them of one 
blood with us ; they are our fellows. 7. They are 
our neighbors, and whatsoever we would they should 
do unto us, we must do unto them, or become guilty 
before God. Suppose, beloved, your color were to 
become black, what would you claim, in this respect, 
to be your due as a neighbor? 8. Those we propose 
to receive are the " little ones" of Christ. We must 
" take heed how we offend one of these ' little ones.' " 
9. The objection to associating with them for the 
purpose of thus doing them good is like the objec- 
tion of the Pharisees against our Saviour's eating 
with publicans and sinners. 10. Intermarriage with 
the whites is not asked, and need not be feared. 1 1. 
None of you will be compelled to receive them into 
your families, unless, like Christ, the love of your 
neighbor compel you to. 12. Those who desire to 
receive and educate them have the same right to do 
it that Christ had to eat with publicans and sinners. 
13. Colored youth have been educated at other in- 
stitutions for whites. 14. They will doubtless be re- 
ceived to all such institutions by and by, and why 
should beloved Oberlin wait to do justice and show 
mercy till all others have done it ? Why hesitate to 
lead in the cause of humanity and of God ? 15. Col- 



344 OBERLLV. 

ored youth cannot be rejected through fear that God 
will be dishonored if they are received. 16. How- 
ever it may be with you, brethren, I know that it 
was only the pride of my wicked heart that caused 
me to reject them while I did. 17. If we refuse to 
deliver our brother now drawn unto death, I cannot 
hope that God will smile upon us. 18. The men 
and money which would make our institution most 
useful cannot be obtained if we reject our colored 
brother. Eight professorships and ten thousand 
dollars are subscribed upon condition that Rev. C. 
G. Finney become Professor of Theology in our In- 
stitute, and he will not unless the youth of color are 
received. Nor will President Mahan nor Professor 
Morgan serve unless this condition is complied with. 
And they all are the men we need, irrespective of 
their anti-slavery sentiments. 19. If you suffer ex- 
pediency or prejudice to pervert justice in this case 
you will in another. 20. Such is my conviction of 
duty in this case that I cannot labor for the enlarge- 
ment of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, if our 
brethren in Jesus Christ must be rejected because 
they differ from us in color. You know, dear breth- 
ren and sisters, that it would be hard for me to leave 
that institution which I planted in much fasting and 
prayer and tribulation, sustained for a time by only 
one brother, and then for months by only two breth- 
ren, and for which I have prayed without ceasing, 
laboring night and day, and watering it with my 
sweat and my tears. You know it would be hard to 
part with my dear associates in these labors. And 
as I have you, as a people, in my heart to live and 



APPENDIX. 345 

die with you, you know, beloved, that it would be 
heart-breaking to leave you for another field of labor ; 
but I have pondered the subject well, with prayer, 
and believe that if the injured brother of color, and 
consequently Brothers Finney, Mahan and Morgan, 
with eight professorships and ten thousand dollars, 
must be rejected, I must join them ; because by so 
doing I can labor more effectually for a lost world 
and the glory of God — and, believe me, dear breth- 
ren and sisters, for this reason only. The agitation 
produced by my request forwarded to the trustees, 
some weeks since, was unexpected. I was sorry 
that it occurred, but happy that you fasted and 
prayed it down. I trust that season has prepared 
the minds of all who devoutly observed it for 
this communication, which I would have suppressed 
till my return had I not been under the necessity 
of communicating the same to the trustees for im- 
mediate decision, because our professors and funds 
are all suspended upon that decision, and myself 
also. May God of his infinite mercy grant that in 
this, and all things right, we may be " perfectly joined 
together in one mind." For two weeks after I left 
Oberlin I was quite unwell with a cold ; but the Lord 
has since blessed me greatly with health. I have 
here been some four weeks upon the Graham system 
of diet, which is nature's system, and my health is 
essentially improved. Last Sabbath morning I 
preached in the old Chatham Theatre, now Chatham 
Chapel, which is immensely large, and more than an 
hour, and to the Fourth Free Church as long in the 
afternoon, and yet felt well on Monday morning. I 



34-6 O BERLIN. 

now indulge sanguine hope that through this system 
of diet and the blessing of God I shall be able to re- 
engage in pastoral labor. And if on my return in 
April next, God willing, you, beloved flock, should 
still concur in desiring me to be your pastor, and 
concur in doing good to our oppressed brethren of 
color, I shall bless God for the privilege of wearing 
out as your servant for Christ's sake. 
As ever your affectionate brother, 

John J. Shipherd. 



Asa Mahan to N. P. Fletcher, Secretary. 

New York, March 12, 1835. 

Brother Fletcher: 

Though personally I am unknown to you, I can- 
not regard myself as a stranger. The residence of 
your daughter in my family has endeared to us all 
that are dear to her. Then through Brother Ship- 
herd and others I know you as an endeared brother 
in Christ. But I have not time nor disposition for 
compliments now. We are doing a great work, and 
cannot descend to such objects. My object in writ- 
ing is to make some statements and suggestions 
respecting the dear institution to which our energies 
and prayers are mutually consecrated. To-morrow 
I expect to start for Cincinnati, after having passed 
through the middle and western part of this State. 
Brother Shipherd is expected daily in this city, 



APPENDIX. 347 

where he and Brother Finney will commence opera- 
tions for raising funds, etc. 

From all that has been done and promised, our 
success is certain but for two occurrences which may 
the Father of all mercies prevent : i. If we do not 
"wax fat and kick," and God for this reason aban- 
don us. 2. If those who have control of the destiny 
of Oberlin stand firm at this crisis. Will the trus- 
tees secede from the stand which they have taken, 
or will they quit themselves like men? If they will, 
and give the public manifestation of the fact, funds 
can be raised, all temporalities can be supplied, and 
Heaven will bless us. 

Dear Brother, have you confidence in the Board 
of Trustees associated with you ? If so, write im- 
mediately to Brother Shipherd in this city and let 
him know. Everything, with the favor of God, de- 
pends upon this. Through Brother Keep you have 
no doubt received a notice of his new purposes, and 
our acceptance of our several appointments. As 
soon as possible after my arrival in Cincinnati, I in- 
tend to start for Oberlin. I hope some log house 
will be prepared for our reception. There we shall 
rejoice to stay till better accommodations are pro- 
vided. Myself, and all associated with me, come 
upon the field not to live in splendor, but to work 
for God and a dying world. I hope that we shall be 
able to say to all our pupils, be ye " followers of us 
as we are of Christ." Brother Finney is a man of 
God, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. His like 
cannot be found in any other institution in the 
country. His coadjutors will be men of kindred 



348 OBERUN. 

spirit. Will not the Lord of Hosts be with us, and 
the God of Jacob be our refuge ? He will. Oberlin 
shall yet become a great luminary in the kingdom 
of Christ, whose light shall encircle the whole earth. 
Write me at Cincinnati, as soon as this is received, 
without fail. Love to all who love the Lord Jesus 
Christ in sincerity. 



Your brother, 



A. Mahan. 



From Dr. and Mrs. Dascomb, to Home 
Friends. 

Oberlin, April 7, 1835. 
Dear Mother: 

In a former letter you received some description 
of Oberlin, but it has changed much since. The 
number of inhabitants has very much increased dur- 
ing the year that we have lived here, and we are 
expecting a large accession this spring, as soon as 
the travelling becomes good. More than twenty of 
the students who left Lane Seminary are daily ex- 
pected here to complete their education. Mr. Fin- 
ney is expected here next week in company with 
Mr. Shipherd. Some twenty or thirty families will 
doubtless be in during the summer. 

The character which the Institution has assumed, 
viz., a " new divinity" and " abolition" seminary, will 
render it popular in New York and Ohio, and the 
eminent men who have recently been appointed as 
professors will attract students from all quarters. 



APPEXDIX. 349 

Funds will not be wanting, and if these principles 
and their practical application meet the approbation 
of God, the Institution will prosper. . . . Do 
you ask how so many students and colonists can 
be accommodated? We do not live in " hollow 
trees," but many of the students will live this sea- 
son in a temporary shed, which is partially prepared, 
and is to consist of twenty-five or thirty rooms, sep- 
arated from each other by rough boards. It is to be 
shingled with slabs. 

The new measures in the Institute will make some 
change in our situation. 

The increase of population will soon furnish busi- 
ness enough for the undivided attention of a phy- 
sician. On the other hand the plans of the Institute 
are maturing so rapidly, that the department which 
is assigned to me will demand the entire energies of 
one man. Under these circumstances I must either 
resign my office in the Institute or relinquish the 
practice of medicine. 

I prefer the former for several reasons. I. I am 
better qualified for the practice of my profession 
than for the duties of professor in the Institute. 2d. 
People have reposed some confidence in me as a phy- 
sician, but I think it very doubtful whether I should 
ever gain much reputation, or be able to do much 
good as a lecturer. 3d. I am not entirely pleased 
with all the " new measures" respecting the Institute. 
I have not consulted with the trustees and my 
friends upon the subject, but I now think I shall 
resign my office. . . . I can never be sufficiently 
grateful that I was so kindly received into your fain- 



35° OB E RUN. 



in 



ily, and allowed to become a son. In every trial, 
sorrows and in joys, Marianne is just the companion 
I need, and everything I could wish. And while she 
is regarded with daily increasing affection, her dear 
mother, and brother, and sisters at home will please 
accept a full share of my love. 

J. DASCOMB. 

Our folio does not get filled very fast, my dear 
mother. We intended this should be the letter next 
mailed by us when we commenced it, but we had a 
letter from Oakham a few days since, which we 
thought should be answered immediately, and so, 
with all our other duties to perform, we have neg- 
lected this sheet. I find my school engagements 
occupy most of my time, yet it is time pleasantly 
spent. I do not come home at night so fatigued as 
I used to be when I had a whole school to manage 
alone. The government of the school, and its gen- 
eral plans, devolve now upon a president, and I have 
nothing to do but to discharge faithfully my orifice 
as teacher of a few classes. I devote most of my 
time out of school to preparing for recitations. 

I must inform you that I am a pupil as well as 
teacher. I recite daily with Dr. Dascomb's class in 
botany, being desirous of extending my knowledge 
of that science. Should Providence give me as much 
leisure and opportunity as I now have, to cultivate 
the mind, I intend to improve it. 

Last winter I attended the chemical recitations 
when convenient. You will say I am partial to the 
professor of chemistry and botany, as I confine my 



APPENDIX, 351 

studies to his department. I shall not refuse to 
have other teachers when I take other studies, 
though I may express as much regret as some of 
the other ladies have at changing teachers. . . . 
Mr. Mahan, our President, has been here a few- 
weeks. We are very much pleased with him. He 
has been very successful as a pastor in Cincinnati, 
and was urgently invited to become pastor of a 
church in New York City at the time he was called 
to Oberlin. He is an eloquent preacher, and I think 
I never heard more instructive and practical ser, 
mons. I trust he will be a blessing to this Institu, 
tion. ... I wish our dear friends from " Parkei 
House" could step in and visit us in our little cham. 
ber. It was built purposely for us, and is just such 
a neat, quiet little retreat as we love. We removed 
from the boarding-house last winter to Deacon 
Pease's, and find our situation far preferable to 
what it was last summer. Mrs. Pease is a pleasant 
woman, and manages her children well. She thinks 
much of making her boarders happy. Deacon Pease 
is more like Deacon Wilson than any one I know of. 
He looks like Uncle Tenney— is ardently pious. It 
seems quite proper that the two deacons should be 
in the same family, for you must know the good 
people have elected your son in Oberlin to that 
office. The choice is quite recent. One of the 
deacons chosen last summer removed from Oberlin, 
and Dr. D. was chosen in his stead. There were but 
one or two votes for any other man, which showed 
the unanimity of feeling. They choose deacons 
only for one year here, otherwise Dr. D. would 



35 2 OBERLIN. 

have declined on account of his profession, the 
duties of which will often call him from home. 

Mr. Pease's little son inquired the other day what 
D.D.D. stood for. We saw from his countenance 
that he was grappling with a brilliant thought, but 
were unable to guess the enigma. He informed us 
it was Deacon Doctor Dascomb. Whenever I write 
a word respecting husband that is complimentary it 
distresses him as much as it used to A. He has the 
same low opinion of himself that used to interest 
me in him in old times. I don't know but the fact 
of his being no office seeker is the reason that 
the good people here are fond of electing him. He 
has been made President of the Lyceum, one of 
the committee to oversee the Sabbath-school in 
this place and others connected with it, auditor of 
accounts for the agent of Oberlin Collegiate Insti- 
tute, secretary of the Oberlin Temperance Society, 
and secretary of the County Medical Society, etc. 
I mention these little things to mother, because I 
know she will be anxious to know whether we 
meet with cordial friends in our new home. We 
have more and better friends than we deserve. You 
would be delighted with some of our good men and 
women of the colony, and students of the Institute. 
. . . As I wrote this I stopped my pen, and raised 
my eyes to laugh, and as my eyes rested on an object 
seen from my window, my risibility increased as I 
thought I would describe it to Hannah. It is the 
palace of Pres. Mahan. It was not originally erected 
for him, being the first house erected in Oberlin. It 
was made of the bodies of the monarchs of our for- 






APPENDIX. 353 

est in their native state, no hammer or saw being 
allowed to mar their pristine beauty. The mansion 
is on Centre Street, being at the north end of a 
block of buildings in the same style of architecture. 
In the front of this dwelling is one door, and a few 
inches from it one window. This whole pile having 
become somewhat dilapidated by the encroachment 
of time, or the depredation of village school-boys 
who have been trained there for a few months past, 
has been repaired, and a shanty of rough boards ad- 
ded to make more numerous apartments. I have 
not been in recently to observe modern improve- 
ments, but the President says they shall have a fine 
suite of apartments, a parlor, kitchen, bedroom, etc. 
His family have not yet arrived, but are daily ex- 
pected. They have two children. Mrs. Mahan was 
educated a lady, in affluence. She is said to be a 
superior woman. Their house will be built in a few 
months. It will be large. There are but few log 
houses here. Few of the framed houses are com- 
pletely finished, but many of them are neat and 
comfortable. Indeed the log houses are comfortable, 
and some of them exhibit as much neatness as Mr. 
Curtis's of D. I had no idea they could be fit for 
habitations for man. As for our stumps, I have 
ceased to think of them, except in a dark night, 
when my unwary steps lead me upon them. We 
shall soon have good roads, as strenuous efforts are 
to be made for them. . . . 

May the blessing of God rest upon you all, is the 
daily prayer of. 

Marianne. 



354 OBERLIN. 

From Arthur Tappan. 

New York, May, 1835. 

Rev. J. J. Shipherd : 

Dear Sir : It is unnecessary for me to say to you 
that I feel a deep interest in your institution. My 
actions must have convinced you of this ; but very 
inadequately indeed, for the full extent of my interest 
in it I should find it difficult to express either in 
words or actions. I believe with you that it is the 
work of God and will prosper, though not perhaps 
quite as rapidly as our desires would have it. But 
" God's ways are" truly in such undertakings " not 
as our ways." The storms of opposition, and may 
be the pecuniary struggles it has to contend with, 
are perhaps providentially ordered to cause its roots 
to strike deeper, and to make its ultimate prosperity 
more certain. 

But my object in writing is to say that should you 
fail of obtaining the aid you anticipate, and that is 
necessary to carry forward the enterprise with needed 
celerity, I propose that you shall enable me, or Mr. 
Wm. Green, Jr., and myself, to raise money on the 
property belonging to the institution, by mortgaging 
it to us in trust for the purpose. If you can place 
security ample and sufficient in our hands, I am ready 
to say you may draw on me for ten thousand dol- 
lars, on the strength of it, in the course of the present 
year, if it is needed. 

Yours in Christian bonds, 

Arthur Tappan. 



APPENDIX. 355 

P. S. — My subscription of five thousand dollars 
your treasurer may draw for, as it is needed, in drafts 
at ninety days' sight. This is independent of the 
above proposition. 

Yours, 

A. T. 



From Lewis Tappan. 

New York, May 5, 1835. 

Dear Brother Shipherd : 

When I paid the first instalment of my subscrip- 
tion, it was my intention, as I mentioned to you, to 
accompany it with a letter expressing my view as to 
future payments. Time did not then allow of it, 
and I write this short letter, retaining a copy, that it 
may be clearly understood on what footing my sub- 
scription stands. The written condition is, that 
Rev. C. G. Finney should be Professor of Theology 
in the Oberlin Institution, and the verbal addition 
was, that antislavery principles should be recognized 
in the Institution, freely discussed and inculcated ; 
and that the broad ground of moral reform, in all its 
departments, should characterize the instructions. 
The subscriptions were to be paid while in the judg- 
ment of the subscriber these things were recognized 
and taught. I wish to be very careful in stating the 
mutual understanding we had on the subject, be- 
cause since my subscription was made I have felt 
and expressed, in your hearing and Brother Finney's, 
strong doubts whether antislavery principles and 



35 6 O BERLIN, 

practices would be satisfactorily inculcated at Ober- 
lin. Praying God to bless the instructors and stu- 
dents, and make the Institution a great blessing to 
this land and the world, 

I am, dear sir, your obedient servant, 
Lewis Tappan. 



Arthur Tappan to J. J. Shipherd. 

New York, May 6, 1835. 

Rev. and Dear Sir : 

Rev. Mr. Finney left here yesterday for Oberlin. 
He has the prayers of many here for his safe arrival 
with you, and we indulge high hopes of his useful- 
ness in the institution to which he has been called at 
Oberlin. You will doubtless hear that an effort is 
making on the Reserve by the friends of the Western 
Reserve College to get him there. I sincerely hope 
he will not listen for a moment to any such proposi- 
tion, for nothing short of a thorough change in the 
men who govern that institution, as well the trustees 
as the Faculty — with the exception of a small min- 
ority — would ensure to the friends of liberal senti- 
ments the glorious results now confidently anticipated 
from Oberlin. ... I feel much interested in your 
institution and shall at all times be obliged to you for 
any intelligence touching its prosperity. 

With great respect and esteem, 
I am truly yours, 

Arthur Tappan, 



appendix. 357 

From Arthur Tappan. 

New York, June 15, 1835. 
Rev. J. J. Shipherd : 

Dear Sir: . . . Permit me to suggest that some 
regard should be had to the style of building, and 
laying out your college grounds. There is a great 
defect in this particular in our eastern colleges. With, 
out much, if any, additional expense, good taste may 
be consulted in the public and private buildings you 
erect, and the grounds around them. And it will 
add not a little to the satisfaction of your friends 
when they visit you, if I may judge from my own 
feelings. 

And is it not true that chasteness in architecture 
and adjoining grounds has a refining influence on 
the character, and adds immensely to the enjoyment 
of life? I feel that it is a religious duty to imitate 
our Heavenly Benefactor in this as in all his other 
perfections. With much regard, 

Yours, 
Arthur Tappan. 



From T. S. Ingersoll — A Colonist. 

To the Board of Trust for the Oberlin Collegiate 
Institute. 

Dear Brethren: 

Will you suffer a word from one who loves the 
cause in which you are engaged ? The Lord has 
made you the almoners of bounty, in a work of 



35 8 OBERLIN. 

most interesting and fearfully responsible character. 
He has opened wide the hand of his bounty, and 
poured into his treasury which he has established 
here in the wilderness, for an express, definite pur- 
pose ; and that object is no other than the world's 
conversion to Jesus Christ, in the soonest possible 
time. And to accomplish this, many and spacious 
buildings are requisite for the accommodation of those 
whom God has called to take the charge of others, 
whom he in his providence has called to prepare to 
preach the everlasting Gospel ; also buildings for the 
students preparatory to this great work. You, my 
dear brethren, have taught us to regard this as God's 
work, God's buildings, God's institution and God's 
property, and this is right ; because you have in a 
special manner consecrated yourselves to God for 
this work which he has assigned you. And he has 
consecrated all the funds, which he has sent here, to 
a most holy service, and the whole, funds, land, 
buildings, all, all, have again and again been most 
solemnly consecrated to God for the above described 
purpose, by him who w r as the founder of this in- 
stitution, and who gathered this colony, and by the 
colonists whom he gathered, and may I not say by 
your honorable body also. 

Seeing these things are so, what manner of build- 
ings and what manner of work ought your body to 
direct to be built? 

" Be ye not conformed to this world," is the injunc- 
tion of Him who has called you to be his stewards. 
Again, those things that are highly esteemed among 
men — men of this world, impenitent men — are an 



APPENDIX. 359 

abomination in the sight of God. My dear brethren, 
will you build houses for the servants of the Most 
High God, with his own money, in a manner that 
will be highly esteemed among men, and because 
they are so, "an abomination in the sight of Him" 
for whom they are built ? Will you direct or even 
suffer mechanics to build, even at their own expense, 
houses here for carrying forward the Lord's work, 
merely to be esteemed by the men of this world, 
that you may secure their friendship? Know ye, 
11 that he that would be a friend to the world, is the 
enemy of God," for, " the friendship of this world is 
enmity with God." " Ye cannot serve God and 
mammon." In the house which is built for Brother 
Mahan, I have found some forty or more dollars' 
worth of work in the two north rooms which I can- 
not for my life find any good reason for, except it be 
to please the taste of a vitiated world. An impeni- 
tent master-builder remarked to me the other day, 
that he thought President Mahan's house might have 
been built three hundred dollars cheaper, taking size 
and style, and have it answer the object for which it 
ought to be built, especially when the public's money 
was employed for the work. . . . 

There is a plain, neat, simple style of building, 
which commends itself to every man's enlightened 
good sense, and still will not be highly esteemed by 
the world, neither is it an abomination in the sight 
of God. 

Will my brethren seek for this style of having the 
work of the Lord done, which is committed to their 
hands? If so, from whom will they draw their 



360 OBERLW.- 

models ? From the word of God, or from the word 
of Benjamin, or some other human architect? 

Supposing all the buildings which are to be 
erected here with the Lord's money be built in the 
style of good architectural taste, so that the men of 
this world would commend us for our good style, and 
correct taste, and by this we should secure the influ- 
ence which this world affords — what would be gained ? 
What? I will tell you, my dear brethren. We should 
gain that which Jesus Christ said on another though 
somewhat similar occasion, " Woe unto you, when 
all men shall speak well of you." With much love, 
and anxious solicitude for the cause of God in Ober- 
lin, I subscribe myself, 

Your brother in Christ, 

T. S. Ingersoll. 

OBERLIN, March 9, 1836. 



From J. J. Shipherd— Pastoral Letter. 
To the Churcli of CJirist in Oberlin. 

Dearly Beloved: 

Although the endearing relation which I sustain 
to you as pastor has existed only about one year, 
duty requires that it should be dissolved. I thank 
God, dear brothers and sisters, that this dissolution 
is not called for because we have fallen out by the 
way, but for the furtherance of the Gospel. You 
are in my heart to live and die with you, and your 
Christian regards to me have been so demonstrated, 



APPENDIX. 361 

that I doubt not their sincerity, nor their strength. 
Yet a strong hand binds us to God our Saviour, and 
his will is paramount to our pleasure. That it is the 
will of the great Head of the church, that I should 
now resign my pastoral office, appears to me plain, 
in the subsequent facts : 1. I have not been profit- 
able to you in the ministry, I have longed to feed 
the sheep, and feed the lambs, and reconcile the 
rebellious to God ; but ill health and the draughts 
of the Institute upon my health and time have ren- 
dered it impossible for me to accomplish this work. 
I can merely pass it off in an ordinary way, which 
will no more answer for Oberlin than it will do for 
you to be an ordinary church. 2. The great Head 
of the Church is opening before me a door of useful- 
ness, wide and effectual, in the work of Christian 
education, and distinctly calling me into that great 
and blessed work. So that while I can do but little 
in the plenteous harvests by personal ministry, I 
can do much to supply it with effective laborers, and 
thus preach Christ still, through the Oberlin Insti- 
tute, and kindred seminaries, which, under God, I 
may aid in building. 3. In these views, as far as I 
know, my brethren and sisters concur, so that I need 
not specify other reasons, nor amplify these, which 
are as conclusive as they are brief. Permit me, 
brethren, however, to add a brief expression of my 
strong desire that you elect as my successor none 
but a man after God's own heart, thoroughly fur- 
nished for the peculiar work of Oberlin. You must 
not only have a preacher in power, but a pastor in 
practice, who will be in every home and every heart 



362 BERLIN. 

whose soul is imbued with the principle of the Ober- 
lin covenant. 

Unless you can get such a man, my advice is that 
you settle no one, but rely, under God, upon your 
own labors, aided by our dear brethren of the Faculty. 
Considering the plenteousness of the harvests, the 
fewness of the laborers, and the number of ministers 
connected with the Institution, I have sometimes 
doubted whether you ought to take, from another 
field, such a man as would fill the pastoral office 
here. But considering the peculiar and the immense 
bearings of this church upon others, and the world, 
for their sakes as well as yours, and for the glory of 
God abroad as well as here, I advise that you in- 
vite the best man you can find on Zion's walls, whose 
peculiar circumstances do not forbid his leaving his 
present post. I have thought that you and the 
trustees might elect jointly a pastor and professor 
of pastoral theology, if a man combining the requisite 
qualifications could be found. But looking abroad, 
in the extensive circle of my ministerial acquaint- 
ances, and considering the amount of parochial labors 
required in this large and growing church, I do not 
believe the man lives who could finish the work of 
both offices. Nevertheless if the Colony and the 
Institute cannot be bound together thus in one fold 
under one shepherd, be sure you settle a man who 
will encircle the Colony in one arm and the Institute 
in another, holding them as a church in inseparable 
Christian union. And now, beloved in Jesus, remem- 
ber your high calling, your infinite responsibility, and 
press toward the mark. You have witnessed a good 



APPENDIX. 363 

profession before the world. Oh, let your practice 
correspond. You stand on the pinnacle of Zion's 
hill. Oh, reflect the pure cloudless light of the Sun 
of righteousness. Remember that, like Thesaloni- 
ca, Oberlin must be an example to all that believe, 
or reproach Christ and ruin a multitude of souls. 
Therefore let the Oberlin covenant, or, in other 
words, the Gospel, be stereotyped in your hearts, 
and embodied in you, dear brethren and sisters, as 
living epistles, known and read of all men. But I 
must suppress the overflowing of my heart toward 
you, and close by saying, " only let your conversation 
be as becometh the Gospel of Christ, that whether 
I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of 
your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one 
mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel, 
and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which 
is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you 
of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is 
given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on 
him, but also to suffer for his sake." That you, be- 
loved, might be perfect as your Father in Heaven is 
perfect, is the prayer of your affectionate pastor, 

John J. Shipherd. 
Oberlin, June 15, 1836. 



From Joshua Leavitt. 

Buffalo, July 11, 1835. 
Brother Shipherd : 

If I am not mistaken your professorship of mathe- 
matics has been vacated. While here attending a 



364 ODERLIN. 

temperance convention I have become pleasingly 
acquainted with Dr. William K. Scott, of Sandy 
Hill, N. Y., whose character as a teacher of math- 
ematics stands very high, as certified by the late 
Governor Pitcher, Hon. Henry C. Martindale and 
other scientific gentlemen. He is afloat now, and I 

presume could be had for Oberlin I can 

hardly bear to go back to New York without visit- 
ing that loved spot, but Mr. Benedict's health is 
poor, and I must hasten home, as I do not see any 
special reason to go. Go on, brother ; build your 
houses and select your teachers, and the Lord be 
with you. I think more and more, from what I hear 
at the eastward, that John P. Cowles and Brother 
Barrows ought to be kept before you as candidates 
for some post, and that they could do you good. 
Love to Brother Finney and all others. The lectures 
go well, and we want another series next winter. 
Yours truly, 

Joshua Leavitt. 



From Lewis Tappan. 

New York, Aug. 10, 1835. 

Dear Brother Shipherd: 

.... I intended to have mentioned to you pre- 
viously my design to resign the office of president 
of the association to perpetuate the professorships. 
I have communicated the same to Mr. I. W. Clark, 
the secretary. I have so much business of various 



APPENDIX. 365 

kinds to attend to that I cannot well act on the 
above committee. I recommend Brother Wm. 
Green, Jr., as successor. 

The enemy has come out with great wrath and 
fury. Unusual excitement prevails in the South 
and in fact throughout the country. Threats of 
assassination and abduction are loud and frequent. 
My brother is the special object of the blood-thirsty 
vengeance of the slavery men. What measures they 
may take it is impossible to foresee. I suppose the 
" prudent" abolitionists will accuse us of some injudi- 
cious measures that have excited the people through- 
out the United States, and we shall be told, "The 
prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself." 
My house has been named in a hand-bill signed 
Judge Lynch, as a mark of popular fury. But 
hitherto the Lord has preserved us, and blessed be 
his holy name ! 

The executive committee are firm to a man, de- 
termined to go forward, even at the expense of 
property and life. We feel a calmness and confi- 
dence in God that supports us in this trying hour. 
Out of one hundred and seventy-five thousand pub- 
lications issued by the American Antislavery Society 
in July, only one thousand were burnt at Charleston, 
S. C. — the one hundred and seventy-fifth part ! The 
rest are working their way all over the land. We 
did not send one to a slave or even a free man of 
color at the South, though we claim a right to send 
to the latter. The Lord we trust will overrule " this 
madness of the people" to the promotion of the 
blessed cause, and the glory of his name. 



366 OBERLW. 

With Christian regard to the dear brethren, I am 
your friend and brother, 

Lewis Tappan. 



Thomas Clarkson to Wm. Dawes, in Eng- 
land. 

Playford Hall, Oct. 14, 1839. 

To William Dazves : 

My Respected Friend : 

I am very sorry that in consequence of my having 
passed several sleepless nights, I was not able to 
enter so fully as I could have wished, into the object 
of your mission to this country, when you did me 
the honor of calling upon me. It is a matter of 
great pleasure to have had from you an account of 
the Oberlin establishment. I cannot but take a 
deep interest in its welfare, seeing how many desir- 
able objects it combines, and how well calculated it 
is, but particularly at this moment, to meet preju- 
dices, and to oppose the efforts of interested men, 
who set themselves up, in defiance of the laws of 
God, to trample under foot human liberty, and to 
reduce man, to whom the powers of intellect were 
given, to the situation of the brute. I know not to 
what a degrading state your unhappy country will be 
brought, unless a stop be put to slavery. Will you 
continue long, unless you change your measures, to 
be reckoned among the civilized nations of the 
earth? To be familiar with the sound of injustice 



APPENDIX. 367 

daily in your ears, and to lend no helping hand, 
must produce in time a taint or corruption which 
must injure the moral character. Has not this cor- 
ruption already begun? Has it not proceeded from 
blacks to whites? 

From a systematic familiarity with oppression 
have not your rulers begun to oppress you their fel- 
low subjects? You are forbidden to speak, you are 
forbidden to write, or even to petition on this sub- 
ject. Where is this the case but in most despotic 
countries? Surely it could never have been foreseen 
that this would ever have been the case in the 
United States. It becomes you, therefore, to do 
all you can to wipe away this stain from your coun- 
try. And I rejoice, therefore, to hear that the Ober- 
lin Society has risen up, and that it has had the 
courage to rise up under such circumstances, amidst 
the growing darkness and immorality spreading 
over your once happy land, to meet the evil in 
question. 

I heard with pleasure that the corporation of the 
City of London received the petition in behalf of the 
Oberlin establishment with so much courtesy. I 
cannot doubt of their doing something liberally and 
handsomely towards promoting the object of it. 
But after all, it is not so much what they give as the 
high sanction of their example. This ought to be 
justly estimated in the United States, and it is to 
be the more appreciated when it is considered that 
men of different religious denominations, and of dif- 
ferent political parties were assembled to receive the 
petition. It is highly creditable to this corporation 



368 O BERLIN. 

that they should have listened to the petition of 
American Abolitionists, whom we are unfortunately 
obliged to consider as aliens in point of country, 
though they sprang from ourselves. Their motive 
could only have been a real compassion for the dis- 
tressed. I trust that God in his providence is 
opening a way through the Oberlin Society, or that 
he will open a way, for the relief of the oppressed of 
our fellow creatures who are the subject of this 
letter. 

Yours truly, 

Thomas Clarkson. 

Note. — The vote of the Corporation was eighty- 
one yeas and eighty-three nays. — Ed, 



Hon. Josiah Harris, of Amherst, to his 
Wife. 

Columbus, O., Thanksgiving A. M., 1842. 
: I must say to you that you can have no 



conception of the opposition and prejudice existing 
against Oberlin College in the Legislature. This 
year it arises principally from the numerous peti- 
tions presented last year for the repeal of its charter 
and from a book, " Oberlin Unmasked," passing 
round in the House, and a thousand unfavorable 
rumors in relation to amalgamation, fanaticism, har- 
boring fugitive slaves, etc., all founded upon rumor 
without any evidence of their truth before the Legis- 
lature. 



APPENDIX. 369 

Mr. McNulty, of the House, at the commence- 
ment of the session, on notice, introduced a bill for 
the repeal of the Oberlin College charter, which is 
still pending. It is now in the hands of the Com- 
mittee on Corporations in that branch of the Legis- 
lature. They had not reported yesterday. It is 
now pretty generally thought that it will pass the 
House. If so, then will come on the war in the 
Senate. 

I will say to you that I had a little flare-up in the 
Senate on the subject of a bill to incorporate the 
Dialectic Association of the Oberlin Collegiate Insti- 
tute [a college literary society]. The passage of 
the bill came on when I was the most melancholy in 
regard to news from home. I said nothing in its 
favor. The yeas and nays being called for, it was 
lost. 

The next day I got Mr. Walton from Monroe, one 
of the majority, to move a reconsideration of that 
vote. I seconded him and gave the Senate a short 
speech, thanking the gentleman from Monroe, and 
demanding my right to a reconsideration as a mem- 
ber on the floor of the Senate. The motion carried 
unanimously. Then I moved it be laid on the 
table, which was agreed to. All the objection to the 
bill seemed to be because it had the words, " Ober- 
lin Collegiate Institute." I name the above so that 
you may know something of the spirit existing in 
the Senate in relation to Oberlin. 

P. M. — Have just returned from the Methodist 
church and resume. I have conversed with several 
members about Oberlin. I say to them that the most 



370 OBERLIN. 

or all the rumors about the people there are un- 
founded. They are willing for an examination even 
by a committee from those most prejudiced against 
Oberlin College. I say also that they are a component 
part of my constituency whose rights are invaded 
without any just cause, as there is not a petition pre- 
sented to either branch of the Legislature this session 
for a repeal of their charter. If the subject comes 
up in the Senate I shall contend against it inch by 
inch. 

I also say that I am no Abolitionist, nor a disciple 
of Oberlin, but I want to see the rights of all pro- 
tected on the principle of the old Democratic motto, 
" Equal and exact justice to all men." 

I have opened a correspondence with H. C. Tay- 
lor, of Oberlin, who is furnishing me with papers, 
etc., to enable me to make defence against a repeal. 
I hope the bill will not pass the House. If it does I 
shall do the best I can on the subject, whether I am 
condemned or applauded in my own county. 

When I see the rights of people invaded with as 
much vituperation as they are, right, justice to my- 
self and my country urge me to rise in their defence, 
though they may think differently from me on most 
subjects. 

NOTE. — " Oberlin Unmasked " was a scurrilous 
pamphlet published by a dismissed student. — Ed. 



INDEX. 



Abkeyville School, 76 
Accession from Lane Seminary, 

50 
Accommodations for Students, 

39 

Allen, Prof. George N., 196, 
294 

Alumni, 298 

American Beard, 134 

American Missionary Associa- 
tion, 144 

Amistad Captives, 137 

Antislavery Discussion at Lane, 

5i 
Antislavery Excitement, 365 
Antislavery Lecturers, 75 
Antislavery Voting, in 
Appeal to Corporation of Lon- 
don, 209 
Appendix, 305 
Arnold, Mr. and Mrs., 140 
Athletic Association, 262 
Attendance of Young Women, 

176 
Avery, Dr. Charles, 213 

Bailey, Dr., 54 
Baker, Lieut. E. H., 164 
Balance of Power, no 
Bank, First National, 244 



Baptism of the Spirit, 93 
Barnard, Mrs., 144 
Barrows, Rev. E. P., 2S7 
Beardsley, Julius O., 137 
Benevolence Theory, S4 
Bible Classes, 257 
Biblical Study, 256 
Boarding Hall, A New, 44 
Branch, Miss Eliza, 38 
Branch, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel, 

41 
Brand, Rev. James, 106 
Buildings Needed, 232 
Building of First Church, 103 
Building of Second Church, 107 
Buildings, Original Cost of, 231 
Buildings, Style of, 357 
Burleigh, William H., 280 
Burning of Classics, 71 
Burrell, Mr. J. L., 295 
Bushnell, Simeon, 124 
Butts, L, D., 76 

Cabinet, 233 
Cabinet Hall, 228 
Carpenter's Shop, 217 
Catalogue for 1S35, 74 
Cemetery, 241 
Chapel, The First, 39 
Chapel, Changes of, 226 



372 



INDEX. 



Chapel Bell, 226 

Chapin, Mr. Josiah, 207 

Chapin, Mr. Wm. C, 215, 212 

Charter, 40 

Charter, Attempts to Repeal, 

116, 369 
Chase, Gov., Speech of, 129 
China Band, 145 
Christian Perfection, 91 
Church, Attendance of Students, 

108 
Church for the College, 104 
Church Organized, 47 
Cincinnati Hall, 219, 67 
Citizens Indicted, 123 
Class Prayer Meetings, 258 
Cleveland University, 278 
Cochran, Prof. William, 94, 

294 
Co education, 173, 182 
College Buildings, 216 
College Chapel, 225 
Ccllege Class, The First, 49 
College Farm, 186 
College Farm Leased, 192 
College Park, 243 
College Discipline, 263 
College Work, 248 
College Work in the War, 171 
College Treasurers, 297 
College Journalism, 260 
College, Undenominational, 107 
Collegiate Institute, The Name, 

40 
Colonial Hall, 69, 219 
"Colonial Hall, First Service in, 

70 
Colonists, 10, 296 
Colonists, the Earliest, 36 
Colonists and Slaverv, 62 



Colony, Objection to, 25, 307 
Colored Population, 113 
Colored Schools, 135, 145 
Colored Students, in, 342 
Colored Students Received, 55 
Colored Student, The First, 74 
Commencement, 266 
Commencement in the War, 

166 
Commencement, The First, 46 
Come-outerism, 85 
Company C, 162, 176, 168 
Confession of Faith, 98, 101 
Conflict on Leaving Home, 22 
Congregational Association, 99 
Conservatory Organized, 201 
Conservatory, Origin of, 197 
Conservatory Endowment, 203 
Consultation in New York, 58 
Contributions at Oberlin, 216 
Convention at Cleveland, 128 
Copeland, John, 157 
Covenant, The Oberlin, 25 
Corporation of London, 367 
Council Hall, 230 
Cowles, Rev. John P., 84, 2S7 
Cowles, Rev. Henry, 284 
Cox, Gen. J. D., 170 
Cox, Mr. Kenyon, 235 
Cross, Rev. R. T., 302 
Cross Lanes, Battle of, 164 

Dascomb, Dr. and Mrs , 41 
Dascomb, Dr. James, 275, 318 
Dascomb, Mrs. M. P., 276 
Dascomb Professorship, 213 
Dawes, Mr. William, 293, 208 
Degrees, 267 

Deliberation, The First, 15 
Democratic Opinion, 157 



IXDEX. 



</ J 



Denominational Affinities, 97 
Denominational Enterprises, 

105 
Dickinson, Mr. Charles H , 213 
Discussion, Habit of, 87 
Discussion on Study of Classics, 

7i 
Discussion Prohibited at Lane, 

53 
Douglass, Frederick, 85 
Dresser, Amos, 77 

Earlier Families, 296 

Early Home Missionaries, 146 

Early Spirit, 78 

Ecclesiastical Relations, 97 

Eells, J. H., 9S 

Elm, The Historical, 21 

Emancipation, Expectation of, 

154 
Endowment of College, 214 
Endowment by Scholarships, 

192 
Enlargement, 50 
Enlistment for the War, 163 
Entire Sanctification, Question 

of, 89 
Excitement on Color Question, 

56 
Expenses of Student, 268. 

Fairbanks, Calvin, 115 
Fairchild, Rev. E. H., 301 
Fairfield, Rev. M. W., 106 
Financial Depression, 207 
Finney, Rev. C. G., 65, 66, 69, 

79. 279 
Finney Professorship, 213 
Financial History, 204 
Fire Department, 239 



First and Second Years, 32 
Fitch, J. M., 130 
Fitch, Rev. C, 86 
Fires in Oberlin, 239 
Flouring Mill, 43 
Founding, 9 

Foster, Mr. and Mrs., 85 
French, Mr. Charles, 22^ 
French, Rev. W. C, 24'. 
French Hall, 229 
Fugitives, Rescue of, u3 

Games, 262 

Garrison, Wm. Lloyd, 52, 85 

Gas Works, 239 

Gerrit Smith's Gift, 210 

Giddings, J. R., Speech of, 129 

Gifford, Miss Louisa, 317 

Graduation of Young Women, 

180 
Grahamism, 82 
Gray, Prof. Elisha, 235 
Grand River Institute, 76 
Graves, Mr. R. R., 214 
Griffin, John S., 141 
Gymnasium, 262 

Habeas Corpus, Applied for, 

127 
Hall, Mr. J. B., 296 
Hall, Rev. S. R., 314 
Hayes, P. C, 16S 
Hazing, 265 

Health of Young Women, 184 
Health, The first year's 44 
Hebrew, Study of, 72, 257 
Hill, Mr. Hamilton, 209 
Higher Law, 123 
Hodge, Dr. Charles, 281 
Hodge, Lutor N. W., 302 



374 



INDEX. 



Holbrook Professorship, 213 
Hotels, 43, 242 
Honors and Prizes, 266 
Houses, Color of, 47 
House of College Farmer, 224 
Hudson, Prof. T. B., 287 
Hull, Mr. Charles J., 215 
Hymn of Prof. Allen, 199 

Inaugural Addresses, 74 
Ingersoll, Prof. E. P., 195 
Ingraham, David S., 135 
Institution Orders, 208 
Interruption of Study, 95 

Jennings, Dr. Isaac, 247 
John Brown's Raid, 157 
Journey to Oberlin, Mr. and 

Mrs. Shipherd's, 36 
Journey to Cincinnati, J. J. S., 

50 
Jeakins, Burford, 167 

Kansas, Movement towards, 

157 
Keep, Rev. John, 63, 208, 292 
Kedzie, Prof. W. K., 301 
Kincaid, Rev. William, 106 

Laboratories, 229, 234 
Laboratory, The first, 222 
Ladies' Board, 178 
Ladies' Course, 178 
Ladies' Hall, 182 
Ladies' Hall, The first, 218 
Ladies' Hall, The new, 227 
Ladies in College Classes, 178 
Lady Graduates, The first, 179 
Laird, Rev. J. H., 302 
Lane Seminary Students, 51 



Langston, Charles H., 124 
Lectures of f . D. Well, 75 
Lee, Rev. S. H., 301 

Letters: 

J. J. Shipherd, 18, 40, 55, 337, 
360, 313, 322, 325, 326, 333 

Oi Colonists, 33 

P. P. Stewart, 14, 305, 309 

Lewis Tappan, 355, 364 

A. Mahan, 346 

Arthur Tappan, 356, 357, 354 

Dr. Dascome, 348 

Mrs. Dascomb, 350, 329 

T. S. Ingersoll, 357 

Joshua Leavitt, 363 

Thomas Clarkson, 366 

Josiah Harris, 368 
Library, 232 

Library, Theological, 233 
Library, U. L. A., 233 
Life Insurance Gifts, 215 
Literary Course, 181 
Literary Societies, 259, 183 

Mahan, Rev. Asa, 333, 66, 351, 

277, 50 
Mahan and Morgan appointed, 

53 
Manual Labor, 186 
Manual Labor, Difficulties of, 

189, 194 
Manual Labor, Prices, 45 
Manual Labor, Relics of, 193 
Manufactures, 244 
Mead, Prof. Hiram, 299 
Merrill, Mr. J. W., 296 
Missionaries, Recent, 145 
Missionary Work, 133 
Missions, Self-Sustaining, 134 
Mission to Canada, 135 



INDEX. 



375 



Mission to England, 208 
Mission to the Indians, 140 
Mission to Jamaica, 135 
Mission to West Africa, 138 
Monroe, Hon. James, 215 
Moral Obligations, Discussion 

of, 84 
Morgan, Rev. John, 54, 66, 69, 

282, 336 
Morgan, John P., 200 
Mulberry Planting, 190 
Music, 195 
Music Hall, 224 
Musical Union, 200 

Name of Oberlin, 17 

National Character, 271 

Nettleton, A. B., 168 

New Building, 232 

New Oberlin, 296 

New School Theology, 78 

Newspapers, 245 

Non-resistance Oberlin Doc- 
trine, 156 

Number of Students in the War, 
170 

Number of Students Frst Year, 
42 

Oberlin Choir, 197 

Oberlin Covenant, Discussion 

of, 81 
Oberlin Course of Study, 249 
Oberlin Diet, 331 
Oberlin Evangelist, 93 
Oberlin Founders, 9 
Oberlin Hall, 37- 216 
Oberlin Hymn-book, 198 
Oberlin, its Location, 20 
Oberlin in the War, 154 



Oberlin in 1834, 329 
Oberlin Lyceum, 42 
Oberlin Orchestra, 198 
Oberlin Musicians, 200 
Oberlin Quarterly Review, 94 
Oberlin School Teachers, 148 
Oberlin Stove, 30 
Oberlin Tract, 9 
"Oberlin Unmasked," 368 
Oberlin, Wellington Rescue, 

119 
Observatory, 235 
Olivet College, 149 
Opening Dec. 3d, 37 
Opposition to the Enterprise, 48 
Oratorical Association, 260 
Organization of Church, 98 

Parish, Mr. F. D., 295 
Parmenter, Wm. W., 167 
Pastoral Letter, 360, 337 
Pastors of the Church, 99 
Patriotism, Growth of, 161 
Pease, Alonzo, 200 
Pease, Mr. P. P., 32, 296 
Pease, Mr. and Mrs., 351 
Peck, Prof. H. E., 29S 
Penfield, Prof. C. H., 299 
Penny, Prof. J. B., 300 
Personal Mention, 272 
Petition to Board of Trustees, 

57 
Philosophy, Interest in, 254 
Physicians, 247 
Piety, Prevalent Type of, 95 
Places of Worship, 103 
Political Action, 109 
Porter, Mr. S. D., 396 
Portraits of Professors, 200 
Post Office, 242 



376 



INDEX. 



Prayers, 258 

Prejudice of Neighbors, 116 
Preparatory Department, 251 
Prssbvtery, Connection with, 

98 ' 
Presbytery of Richland, 146 
Preston, James A., 136 
President's House, 69 
Principal's Prep. Dept, 301 
Printing Establishments, 245 
Prisoners at New Orleans, 165 
Professor Street, 221 
Professors at Lane, 52 
Professorship Association, 65, 

206 
Professors' Houses, 221 
Professorship of Political Sci- 
ence, 215 

Railroad, 237 

Raymond, William M., 139 

Recitation Opened, 259 

Ruscuers in Jail, 130 

Residents, 242 

Rice, Prof. F. B., 201 

Roads, 236 

Roads, The Early, 43 

Ryder, Prof. W. H., 300 

Sabbath, Influence of, 88 
Sabbath Services, 70 
Salaries for Teachers, 316 
Salaries of Professors, 214 
Saloons, 245 
Saw Mill, 37 
Scovill, J. F., 37 
Sears, Mr. Willard, 208, 295 
Second Advent, Discussion of, 

86 
Second Church Organization, 

106 



Self Reporting, 266 
Self-support, 269 
Sheffield School, 76 
Shipherd, John J., 10, 272 
Shipherd, Mrs. Esther R., it, 

273 
Shipherd, James K., 316 
Shustleff, Capt. G. W., 162, 

165 
Sidewalks, 236 

Simplicity of Moral Action, 92 
Slave-Catching, Attempts at, 

117 
Social Life, 261 
Society Hall, 229 
Soldiers' Monument, 172, 243 
Spencer, Mrs., 144 
Sports, 262 
Squirrel Hunters, 169 
Stanton, H. B., 67 
Statement of Objects, 40 
State Rights, 128 
Steele, James, 139 
Steele, Prof. George W., 200 
Stewards and Matrons, 297 
Stewart Hall, 231 
Stewart, Mrs. E. C, 13, 273 
Stewart, P. P., 12, 273 
Stewart's Stove, 306, 312 
Stone, Mrs. Valeria G., 213 
Strieby, Rev. M. E., 144 
Street and Hughes, Arrange- 
ment with, 24 
Street and Hughes, Gift of, 204 
Street and Hughes the Proprie- 
tors, 22 
Streets of Oberlin, 235 
Students Leaving Lane, 54 
Students' Expenses, 45 
Students from Lane, 67 



INDEX. 



577 



Students taken Prisoners, l64 
Students going to the War, 159 
Sturges, Miss Susa.n M., 232 
Scholarship Plan, 28 
Scholarship Endowment, 210 
School House, 240 
School Superintendents, 241 
School, The first Winter, 38 
Subsidiary Scdools, 76 

Tabor College, 151 
Tappan Hall, 69, 220 
Tappan, Arthur, Offer of, 54 
Tappan, Arthur, Pledge of, 65 
Tappan, Mr. Lewis, 144 
Taste in Building, 222 
Teachers Nominated, 314, 333 
Tea and Coffee, 43, 45 
Teft, Dr and Mrs., 140 
Temperance Raisings, 44 
Tenney, Miss Angeline. 134 
Tent and Dedication, 73 
Terms and Vacations, 46 
Thompson, George, 139. 116 
Thompson, Mr. Uriah, 296 
Thome, Prof. James A., 290 
Three Months Men, 169 
Thursday Lecture, 258 
Tobacco, 263 
Todd, Rev. John, 152 
Town Hall, 238 
Townshead, Dr. U. S , no 



Treachery, 294 
Trustees, The Original, 32 
Trustees' Action on t lolor* i 
Students, 6 j 

Tuition Remitted, 200 

Underground Railroad, n \ 

Union Library Association, 2O0 
Village of Obcrlin, 233 

WOLCOTT, Mrs. S. B., 137 
Waldo, Rev. S. 11., 41, 275, 

322 
Walker, Prof. Amasa, 291 
Walton Hall, 77, 222 
Weld, Theodore D. 67 
Western Colleges, 152 
Western Reserve, Students 

from, 6S 
Whipple, Prof. George, 144, 

2S9 
Whipple, II. E., 301 
Williston, Mr. 1. P., 212 
Willson, Judge, Charge of, 122 
Wilson, Hiram, 135 
Woodbridge, Rev. Mr., 3-4 
Wright, Rev. S. G., 142 

Young Peoples' Meeting 

Young Women in Theology, 
179 



s* 9 6 6 



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